Just Like Lightning
by The Miller's Daughter
Summary: Sarah Kent had one goal, to survive Smallville High unscathed. She'd survived three years, so why should Senior year be any different? Well, with her twin brother MIA, her Dad in a coma and her best friend declared dead she was going to need a miracle to survive unscathed. Or maybe just a blonde-haired mystery man to show her the way. Oliver/OC
1. Three Months of Hell

**Author's Note: **This little story just popped into my head and I had to get it onto the virtual page. This is my first Smallville story and I have big, big, big dreams for it... the question is can I keep the motivation to write it flowing. The answer to that at this point is yes. So here is the first instalment. For future reference, I write for myself as an escape. Writing is therapy, so if you're going to comment, be constructive. Not cruel.

This will most likely end up as an Oliver/OC story, however it will be a very slow burn, because this story starts in Season Four, with the addition of my OC (Sarah), who Clark's full-blooded, super-powered, Kryptonian Twin sister. I realise that the "Twin Trope" has been used in many other fandoms (and it seems to be a specialty of mine) but I haven't found many (if any) written in the Smallville verse. So, this will be my shot at it. Oliver will be popping up here and there, obviously earlier than his original entrance at Season Six.

Obviously I do not own Smallville, although I have to admit, it's got to be one of my favourite representations of DC characters, and I wish that I did own it.

Please enjoy.

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><p><strong>Just Like Lightning<strong>

Sarah Kent had one goal, to survive Smallville High unscathed. She'd survived three years so far... so why should her Senior year be any different? Well, with her twin brother MIA, her Dad in a coma and her best friend declared dead she was going to need a miracle to survive unscathed. Or maybe just a blonde-haired mystery man to show her the way. Oliver/OC

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><p><strong>Prologue - <strong>_Three Months of Hell_

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><p>Sarah Kent had never been normal. Tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed she had an understated beauty that seemed to bewitch all of the males in her immediate vicinity. Even if she was considered odd by the majority of the population of Smallville High.<p>

She, much like her twin-brother, had a knack for disappearing from one place and appearing in another just seconds later. Her best friend Chloe had jokingly questioned if she had a TARDIS stashed away somewhere, or if she'd been taking 'how-to' classes with Harry on apparation. Chloe had dropped the subject soon after turning her attention back to her newest addition to the Wall of Weird, deciding to pass it off as an 'Adopted Kent family trait' as it seemed to be something that both Sarah and Clark shared.

The truth, like most things was far more spectacular. For those in the know, namely, their adopted parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, who had discovered the Twins on the fateful day of the Smallville Meteor Shower. Or, more accurately, the Twins had found them, the bright red of the overturned pickup truck drawing the intergalactic travellers like a beacon. Their Mum had told them every night as she read them a story and tucked them into bed as children that they had a gift, and that they were special. Her precious little miracles.

Clark and Sarah had been raised in tandem, discovering new gifts as they grew, such as super speed, super strength and a super ability to not require any sort of medical attention. Though, every year Martha insisted on a dental check, no matter how many times the Dentist told them that they had the best-cared for teeth he'd ever seen. They were blessed, their Dad would tell them, but their blessing came with a price… secrets.

Sarah loved her life. She adored her adoptive-parents, for they were the only ones she'd ever known, and the friends she'd gained in Chloe after the blonde had entered her life in a whirlwind of conspiracy theories and newspaper articles. She had her Twin; her confidant in all things super-related and her best friend in the entire world. She had Pete, who'd grown up with both her and Clark… but as much as she loved all of them… it wasn't quite enough.

Unlike Clark, who desperately wished for a normal life, for the white picket fence with the perfect house, the perfect wife (she was certain that in Clark's daydreams that Lana Lang filled this position) who'd pop out the two-point-five kids and live happily ever . Sarah… well, Sarah dreamt of the stars.

She longed for a life beyond warm walls of her childhood home and the green, cow filled fields of the Farm. She longed to explore the world, to visit every country and make her mark in each… before travelling to worlds beyond Earth.

Oh how she dreamt of where they'd come from. She dreamt of freedom, the freedom to travel, to use her gifts without fear of persecution. Every night, in the seconds before she fell into a blissful sleep, she imagined what her home planet would be like. She wanted to believe that it was beautiful but her first memories were of a bright golden light, followed by smoke-filled skies, blackened earth and a sweet voice coming from a shiny overturned red pick-up truck. The picture in her head, while beautiful, would never be accurate. It was a painful truth to acknowledge, and after a night of crying in her father's arms, she'd never spoken of it again. Instead, she decided to focus on the here, the now and how the hell she was going to survive high school.

Surprisingly she'd made it to Senior Year.

Not without incident of course, there'd been all sorts of confrontations between Clark, her and the Meteorite-Infected, Pete had found out their secret (which had caused a _huge _row between her and Clark because Pete got to know but Chloe didn't) and Clark had taken a Red Kryptonite-fulled detour between their Sophomore and Junior years that had taken both her and their Father who'd been possessed by their other Father so he could borrow the superpowers needed to take Clark down and bring him home. This had led to a relatively okay Junior year (unfortunately Clark and Lana had started dating, yuck) that had quickly gone down hill culminating in Pete deciding to follow his Mum to Wichita, Lana moving to Paris and the downfall of the Luthor's (which was definitely not a bad thing). But she had still believed that they were all going to come out of it unscathed, even if a little battered.

But they hadn't.

Clark was missing- deceived by some girl who'd claimed to be Kryptonian and led through some sort of Portal to their deranged father Jor-El. Pete and Lana had left, all too keen to put Smallville in their rear-view mirrors and while she and Lana had never and would never get along, she'd still left behind a gaping hole where she used to be. Her Dad had fallen into some sort of Coma, his encounter with Jor-El having a far more reaching effect than they could have imagined. The Doctors at the Med Centre were throwing around words like irreversible and severe trauma… Her Mum was devastated and so was she, but her Dad's coma wasn't the worst of the consequences they'd all been faced with. Chloe had suffered a fate worse than all of them.

Murdered.

In cold blood.

By Lionel Luthor.

Chloe's funeral was without a doubt, one of the worst days of her life. She didn't have any of her family at her side, Clark was gone, their Mum couldn't leave their dad's side, Pete hadn't even bothered to make the trip back from Wichita and Lana was on some aeroplane somewhere flying over the Atlantic. She had no one with her. No one she knew to help mourn the loss of her best friend, but she'd come prepared, stealing a bottle of hard liquor from her Dad's locked Liquor Cabinet that she'd learned to break into years ago. So she'd gotten drunk with the only other crying girl at the funeral.

This crying brunette mess of a girl had introduced herself as Lois Lane between gut-wrenching sobs, and informed her that she was Chloe's infamous cousin and the closest thing Chloe had to a sister. Other than Sarah of course. Sarah, for her part had simply handed over the bottle and they'd bonded over stolen tequila, the fact that their tears could have probably filled a rather large dam and their shared grief over the loss of Chloe Sullivan. They'd woken up in the loft the next day, neither quite sure how they'd gotten there (Sarah suspected liberal usage of super-speed) with raging hangovers. They'd exchanged numbers and promises to call, the bond they'd formed in the wake of Chloe's death stronger than they'd expected.

That was three months ago.

Three months of bad hospital food, sleepless nights and a painfully empty house that she now occupied all by herself. Sarah missed her family. She missed them desperately. She missed the early morning arguments that Clark and their Dad had about playing football. She missed her Mum's cooking and her Dad's voice. She missed them all. Sarah was struggling- the only thing keeping her from completely succumbing to her growing depression was the fact that she was being relied on to keep the Farm afloat. But every day the smallest things would remind her of all the people that had left her behind.

Her mornings were spent doing anything and everything on the farm, fixing things that didn't need fixing, cleaning things that didn't need cleaning… the entire farm was immaculate, the closest it had been to perfection for years and Sarah loathed every inch of it. Her days were spent alternating between sitting silently at her Dad's bedside, crying at Chloe's grave and yelling at Clark's empty room. Her nights were spent in an alcohol-fuelled haze in Metropolis but the numbing effect the alcohol provided had worn off quicker every night... so she'd switched to something else to keep her distracted.

Men.

Sarah refused to succumb to the tempting call of the Red Kryptonite, the effect it had on Clark and the far-reaching consequences enough to stop her from ever reaching for the school ring she had stashed away under the loose floorboard in her wardrobe. So she turned to the lesser of two evils. Lois, in one of her whirlwind visits had introduced her to the best clubs in Metropolis, and Sarah rotated between them, charming the bouncers and bartenders to let her in and serve her at every club she entered. Every night there was someone new, a shining distraction to keep her from the loneliness she felt. She never felt the need to learn their names, callous as it was, they meant nothing to her and she was always long gone before the sun rose and they learnt hers.

She noticed, two months after her life had gone to hell and she'd started her nightly club crawl that there was a man that seemed to follow the same circuit as her. He was handsome, all muscles and blonde hair, and she'd caught him giving her the same appraising glances she had given him whenever they saw each other. He'd eventually brought her a drink, a few weeks after they'd first seen each other and one drink had turned into two, and two into three until they ended up back at his apartment their clothes leaving a trail from the elevator to his bed as they ended up tangled together beneath the sheets.

And when all was said and done and they'd gotten what they wanted, Sarah noticed something familiar in his chocolate eyes. Reflected in them was the same haunted gleam that darkened her baby blues. So for the first time she'd broken her rule and told her distraction her name. He'd done something so utterly surprising in that he pulled her close, their bodies fitting together in a way that she'd only read about and kissed her softly, his lips like the smoothest satin on hers. He'd whispered one word to her after he'd pulled away, his voice husky and warm.

"Stay."

And she did. Long after the sun had rose and light had streamed through the huge glass windows, they stayed tangled together beneath the sheets. Their hands wandered, tracing every scar and mapping every inch of each other's bodies as they did their best to keep the loneliness at bay.

He used his kisses like a weapon drawing carefully edited truths from her swollen lips and before Sarah had even entertained the notion of resisting his skillful interrogation he'd responded in kind. He'd listened as she shared her grief, the loss of Chloe, Clark and the pseudo loss of both her parents and she returned his comforting silence as he softly informed her of the loss of both his parents and friends to the raging untamable Seas.

Their method of numbing the pain wasn't found at the bottom of a glass bottle and it sure as hell didn't require words. Sarah had left early the next morning with a whispered goodbye and a chaste kiss to his lips as he slept peacefully. It hurt more than she'd anticipated, leaving him after their nearly forty-eight hour tryst, because for the first time in months, Sarah was able to feel something other than loneliness and heartbreak. But all good things came to an end, and whatever she had with him, she was well aware would never leave the silk sheets they'd spent the hours between. So she employed her usual method of escape, ignoring the guilt of leaving him with nothing but her first name, the scent of her body lotion on his bedsheets and had headed for the balcony, after collecting her clothes and a sweet souvenir.

She'd jumped from the balcony, the thrill from jumping from one of the highest parts of the skyscraper, temporarily overriding the loss she felt as she free fall'ed landing lightly on the polished pavement, fully clothed. And as she entered her room for the first time in almost two days, she crawled into her own bed, keenly felling the absence of another person and pulled on the rumpled charcoal oxford that still smelled just like him, that she'd happily divested him of the night he'd brought her a drink.

That was the last time she'd visited Metropolis, no longer finding solace in the bottom of a bottle or in the bed of a stranger. Instead, she pushed herself to the point of breaking, lasting a full two weeks of no sleep, no food and liberal use of her super-abilities before her Mum had stepped in, finding her in a broken, crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs. Sarah had woken up, days later, in her own bed, to find her tear-stained, completely disheveled Mum, apologising through her heartbreaking sobs for practically abandoning her for so long.

They'd cried, for hours afterwards as they struggled to accept what had been right in front of them for almost three months. Chloe was dead, Jonathan had little to no chance of recovery and Clark was so far gone that he'd never return.

So, with no other choice, Sarah accepted her fate, feeling the loss of her family more and more everyday. But she pushed on... until one stormy night not long after when her mobile phone vibrated on the kitchen bench.

Answering it automatically Sarah heard the sweet voice of her Mother.

"Sarah sweetheart? Someone found Clark... he's alive!"

And just like that, part of the weight that had been crushing her lifted... _her brother was home._

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I am honestly not sure as to when the next chapter will be arriving, but I honestly hope you enjoyed this little beginning.

Follow, favourite, review!


	2. Damsels and Distress

**Author's Note:** I have been completely overwhelmed by the response to the first chapter of this story. It was just the Prologue, but wowza, **_seven reviews_?! **I did not see that coming and it absolutely encouraged me to finish writing this chapter. I have so, so, so many ideas and I just can't wait to keep writing my little version of Smallville! I decided to start writing this story in Season Four, because it's one of my absolute favourite seasons. It's the introduction of some of my favourite Characters in the Smallville Verse, and I've gotta tell you, it's fun to mess around with them.

This chapter is based around the first two episodes of Season Four, _Crusade _and _Gone._ When I was writing this it went in a completely different direction than I expected (which definitely wasn't a bad thing) but I am glad it did, because guess who's back? Well, you'll just have to read to find out! Thank you to all of you lovely reviewers, followers and favouriters. I do adore you.

Obviously I do not own Smallville, although I have to admit, it's got to be one of my favourite representations of DC characters, and I wish that I did own it.

Please enjoy.

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><p><strong>Just Like Lightning<strong>

Sarah Kent had one goal, to survive Smallville High unscathed. She'd survived three years so far... so why should her Senior year be any different? Well, with her twin brother MIA, her Dad in a coma and her best friend declared dead she was going to need a miracle to survive unscathed. Or maybe just a blonde-haired mystery man to show her the way. Oliver/OC

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><p><strong>Chapter One - <strong>_A Little Bit of Damsel a Little Bit of Distress_

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><p>Sarah almost dropped her phone in shock. Clark was back, he was alive and he was coming <em>home.<em>

Her mind was racing a mile a minute. What happened to him? Where the hell was he for three of the worst damn months of her life? How did he get home? Who found him? Where did they find him? Was he okay? What happened to Jor-El? How'd he escape? Was he still Clark?

Her precious little phone crumbled to dust in her hand and she realised that she had perhaps squeezed a little too tightly. Pulling a coat on over her long-sleeved shirt she sped out the door, barely managing to remember to lock it as she ran towards the hospital, arriving in seconds outside her Father's room. She could see their battered copy of the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" sitting on the beside table but it was the absence of her Mum that was most conspicuous. In the months since Clark's disappearance Martha hadn't moved from her Dad's side except for those few days when she'd been the one needing help.

Jonathan was still in the same position, his eyes firmly shut, a tube helping him to breathe and his skin far too pale for a man born and raised on a farm. Irrationally she'd thought that as soon as Clark returned her Dad would wake up… They'd known, the whole time that his coma wasn't natural, it wasn't anything that could be explained by the best Doctors Lex had hired and shoved in their direction because Jonathan's affliction was entirely _alien_ in nature.

Entirely _Kryptonian_.

Entirely the fault of her useless Father Jor-El.

"Sarah!"

The brunette was pulled from her musings as a somewhat familiar face spotted her from the other end of the sterile hall. She turned, expecting to find her Mum, but instead she was faced with a girl she hadn't seen since her first wild night in Metropolis.

Lois Lane.

"Lois?"

"Do you not check your phone? Like ever? I've been calling you non-stop!"

Sarah grimaced at the reminder of her now crushed mobile. She sheepishly raked her fingers through her hair and shrugged. "Yeah, sorry. My phone is ah- out of action. What the hell are you doing in Smallville?"

Lois shifted her bag on her shoulder and sighed. "I'm here for Chloe."

Sarah bit her lip. "Lois…"

"Please Sarah, not tonight. I don't need another lecture on how dangerous the Luthor's are okay? I need to do this." She shook her head. "But first I need to find someone."

"Who?"

"Clark Kent?"

Sarah almost felt the blow that knocked the wind out of her. How convenient was it that the night she received a phone call from her Mum telling her that Clark was alive, and back in Smallville, Lois just happened to come knocking at their door? Or more accurately, Jonathan's hospital room. "What do you want with him?"

Lois rummaged through her bag, eventually pulling out a silver USB stick dangling from a fine chain. Sarah snatched it from her grasp, immediately recognising it. "This is Chloe's." She couldn't help the accusatory tone from seeping into her voice, but thankfully the entirely too curious girl across from her didn't seem to notice.

Lois nodded. "I found earlier… there's only one file on there. A video."

Sarah tore her gaze from the engraved USB she'd given Chloe almost two years ago and finally looked back up at Lois. "Did you watch it?"

"Wouldn't you?"

Sarah laughed quietly. Bitterly. "Not everyone has the famous Lane curiosity." She paused, wondering if Lois was going to tell her what exactly the video was. But Lois's lips remained tightly sealed so Sarah gave her a not so subtle verbal shove towards the truth. "Are you going to tell me what the video was?"

"It was Chloe." Lois responded quietly, her devastation at the loss of her cousin still as profound as the day they'd met at Chloe's funeral. "She left a message to some kid called Clark and I need to find him."

"Why?"

"What's with all the questions?" Lois snapped. "It's not like you've been doing anything to find out what happened to Chloe! You've just been getting drunk and partying in Metropolis."

Sarah glared at the girl, her voice almost deadly as she spelled out her carefully concealed devastation to the newcomer. "I know what happened to Chloe Lois. I know exactly what happened to her and you are either blind or ignorant if you can't see that you weren't the only one effected by her death!" She shook her head, and looked over Lois's shoulder at the name plate on the door she was standing beside. _Jonathan Kent L.T.C._ Long Term Care. "I lost my best friend, my brother and my Dad all in one day so I am _sorry_ Lois, that I had other things on my mind than searching for information that I already knew." She pushed past the stupefied girl, stalking towards the end of the corridor, where she stopped, turning her broken gaze back towards her friend. "Good luck finding Clark. You're about three months too late."

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><p>Sarah didn't go home that night.<p>

After three months of wishing that Clark would come home, she couldn't bare to face him, all to aware of the resentment that had built up in his absence. A part of her, she knew, blamed him for what had happened to their Dad. Clark was the one with the Destiny- he was the one who was supposed to save the world- so why couldn't he save their Dad from getting caught in the crossfire? That part of her that blamed Clark, also blamed herself. She couldn't stop Jor-El from taking Clark in the first place, she couldn't stop Lionel from killing Chloe and she couldn't pull her Dad out of the coma that was breaking her Mother's heart.

So she did what she did best. Sarah had spent three months burying her emotions in the bottom of a bottle and in the beds of strangers, she'd become old-hat at avoiding her multitudes of issues. So, she spent her night aimlessly wandering the streets of Star City. She had bypassed Metropolis completely, not in the mood for company, sexual or otherwise… besides, she was already avoiding all of her issues tied to Smallville and her family, why not add Metropolis and the memories tied to the Clock Tower apartment?

She'd thought of _him_ often in the weeks after their two-day tryst. In those hours she was closer than she'd ever been to another person, both physically and emotionally. And if she was completely honest with herself, the fact that she'd so easily bared her soul to a complete stranger, no matter how attractive he was, scared the living daylights out of her. She could imagine that had she spent a few more nights (or even a few more hours) he would have been a fully inducted member of the Kent Secret Keeping Brigade, and that was something she couldn't allow.

So here she was, wandering the streets of a city that had a crime-rate just as high as Metropolis, all alone, in the middle of the night, in a futile attempt to avoid everything that had happened in the past few months. It was useless however, because all she could think about was that Clark had returned, their Dad hadn't woken up and the Doctors wanted them to turn off his Life Support. Pulling up her hood and zipping up her leather jacket Sarah barely noticed as she left the relative safety of the street lamps and into Star City's version of Suicide Slums, aptly named The Glades. Sighing as she heard the tell-tale sounds of a person tailing her she shoved her hands into her pockets, ducking as she heard the quiet _shnick_ of a pocket knife extending and ducked as her attacker swung at her.

Somewhat unprepared for the attack, Sarah was caught unawares by the sudden feeling of unease in her stomach. As she stumbled forward, losing her equilibrium, she realised what exactly had happened. Somehow, this low-life Star City street-thug had managed to get his grimy little hands on some form of refined green Kryptonite, if the green glow his knife was emitting was anything to go by. Her attacker overpowered her far too easily, pushing her up against the wire fence, his Kryptonite infused knife held to her neck. Cursing, not for the first time the effect Green Kryptonite (or any Kryptonite for that matter) had on her, she struggled in her attacker's grip until he pushed the knife harder against her neck, drawing a thin line of blood and allowing the Kryptonite to enter her system.

"Now what's a pretty little thing like you doing in a place like this?" The thug growled, grinning sadistically as her face contorted with pain. "You're in the wrong part of town sweetheart… and you know what that means?" He leant towards her, his putrid breath hot on her ear, causing her to shudder violently. "You're all mine."

As he reached for the zipper beneath her chin she fought against the effects of the Kryptonite as much as she could, raising her hands in a feeble attempt to push him away. The thug laughed cruelly and pushed her harder against the fence, pulling the knife away from her neck just long enough to tap it against her chin.

"Uh uh ahh." He mocked. "I wouldn't try that again _sweetheart_ we wouldn't want you to get hurt..."

Sarah turned her head away, finally realising how bad of a decision she'd made when she'd left the safety of the streetlights and surveillance cameras. She'd been stupid, and now she was paying for that stupidity in the worst possible way. Not only had some _human_ gotten the better of her, but the things he no doubt had in mind for her would be one of the most awful crimes someone could commit against another. She shut her eyes tightly to stem the oncoming tears as he gripped her chin roughly and wrenched her face back around. Still, Sarah refused to open her eyes, doing her best to shut him out… to shut the world out.

All of a sudden, the knife fell away from her neck and her attacker slumped to the ground, unconscious or dead she didn't care to check, courtesy of the arrow that had pierced through his chest. Pushing away from the fence Sarah staggered away, collapsing a few meters away as she heaved up the meagre contents of her stomach. She stayed that way, coughing and dry heaving as her body continued to try to get rid of something that wasn't there. She could feel the effects of the Kryptonite dulling, but her stomach refused to stop churning, something that had nothing to do with the little green meteor rocks.

A hand fell lightly on her shoulder and she flinched, getting to her feet entirely too quickly for someone who'd just emptied their stomach onto the ground.

"Get off me!" She yelped, and hand still wrapped around her stomach and the other in front of her protectively. The cynic in her realised immediately that she wouldn't do much damage at all in her Kryptonite-weakened state. She stared in resolute shock at the person that had saved her (the collapsible bow at his side and quiver stocked full of arrows across his back giving away his identity almost immediately) he was tall, a few inches taller than her at least, and clad, from head to toe, in form fitting green leather. If it had been any other time and any other situation she would have admitted that he was _smoaking_ hot.

But not here.

And certainly not now.

"You saved me." Sarah whispered, her eyes fixed on him. He held himself like a warrior, something she was sure he could claim to be, if his prowess with a bow and arrow was anything to go by. But there was something about him, something almost eerily familiar that she, for the life of her, couldn't place, even if it felt like it was on the tip of her tongue.

"I did." He replied, his voice distorted through some sort of device. "You're not from around here are you?" His question, whilst phrased in a curious manner, was more of a statement than anything else, and for a second, Sarah wondered if her saviour knew more than he was letting on.

"Oh gee, you noticed?" She responded sarcastically, letting her hand fall at her side.

"The Citizens of Star City have learnt to stay away from the Glades, even of a day." He glanced at her shaking hands with keen eyes. "You'd have to have a death wish to wander the Glades at night."

She shook her head, noticing his stare and shoved her hands deep into her pockets. "Not a death wish, just a wandering mind."

"Perhaps you should wander in a safer place."

Sarah nodded and brushed past him, absently noting that she had to stop doing that to people. "Perhaps." She conceded, a slight smirk on her lips. The minute she'd accepted that her gifts made her different she'd said goodbye to human luxuries such as safety and normality. Not that this arrow-loving stranger would ever know her secret.

He caught her arm with a soft grip and she paused, wondering why on earth this _man_ seemed so damn familiar. Her eyes flicked over his armour clad chest, his strong arms and finally up to his face. Her head tilted to the side as she stared up at his shrouded features, trying to unravel the secrets he held beneath the hood. It annoyed her immensely that she couldn't discern any defining facial features through the shadow cast by his hood besides the slight quirk of his lips at her obvious curiosity and the emerald mask that covered his eyes. Her heart thudded in her chest as his hand moved up her arm slowly, over her bicep, across her shoulder and lightly cupped the back of her neck.

Sarah shut her eyes, leaning into the tender action as her body flooded with adrenalin and every nerve in her body lit on fire at the mere thought of his lips on hers. Soft lips pressed against her forehead and her eyes fluttered open, catching a glimpse of a chiseled chin as he leant down to whisper in her ear, his voice still as distorted as before.

"Do me a favour… stay out of trouble."

The Archer stepped away, his hand trailing back down her arm as he let her go. The loss of contact was like being doused in ice water, and Sarah couldn't deny, as starved for affection as she'd been since she fled the Clock Tower apartment that she wasn't disappointed. Her eyes flicked up to him and she was once agin struck with how familiar he seemed. "I know you." She whispered, desperately wishing to see his face.

He looked every inch the hero the world needed as he answered, his head tilted towards the horizon where the sun was just beginning to peak over the darkness. "Maybe…" Sarah felt his gaze on her as she too, looked towards the sunrise. "In another life."

Sarah lingered, longer than she should have as he watched the horizon and she watched him… but as the sun rose higher in the sky she remembered the problems she had left behind, the people that were counting on her and that she couldn't stay with her unlikely "hero" forever. In a spilt-second she was gone, leaving a still smiling archer and no trace that she'd even existed there at all.

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><p>"Your Dad calls it your <em>Fortress of Solitude<em>."

The first thing Sarah heard as she sped through the battered farm gates, was the sound of her Mum's sweet voice from the loft. She slowed to a walk, hesitating before she entered the barn, unsure if she was really ready to see her brother. She sighed, knowing that she was already pushing the boundaries of unnoticed avoidance and that she just needed to suck it up, because no matter what had happened Clark would always, always be her brother.

"It's where you come to think… and where Sarah comes to watch the stars." Martha turned around, catching sight of her not-so-little girl. "Sarah!"

Sarah looked up, catching the somewhat disappointed gleam in her mother's eyes as she noticed that that the brunette was still in the clothes from the day before. Martha's eyes narrowed in on the faint cuts on both her neck and cheek and Sarah knew that she would be interrogated later. Clark didn't seem to immediately notice her, completely occupied with examining the old world globe that had belonged to their grandfather and the pictures nestled on the bench beside it.

"Clark?" She called softly, realising immediately that something was most definitely off with her brother.

He turned around, his face stoic and entirely not-Clark that Sarah almost stepped back, recognising something in him that she'd only associated with the voice from the Spaceship that had once occupied their storm cellar.

"You have been hurt."

Sarah narrowed her eyes, Clark's manner of speech had shifted slightly, enough for her already frayed nerves to go into overdrive as she realised something vital. She'd been wrong. He wasn't her brother. This was not Clark. "Jor-El." She growled, ignoring her Mum's startled gasp. "What the hell have you done with my brother?"

The Clark-droid tilted his head to the side, examining her. "I am Kal-El, last son of Krypton, son of Jor-El." He stepped towards her his finger hovering over the cut on her cheek that still hadn't quite healed. "And you are Sara-El, last daughter of Krypton, daughter of Lara-El."

Sarah slapped his hand away, a righteous fury rising within her chest. "My name is Sarah Kent, and you are Clark Kent, son of Martha and Jonathan Kent, of earth. This is your home. We are your family!" She pushed him back, a hand clamped around his throat. "And I want my brother back."

"Sarah!" Martha called, shocked at what was transpiring between her children.

Sarah, for her part, ignored her mother's call, and focused on her twin. She'd never been as strong as him, (as much as she hated to admit it) and knew that she wasn't going to be able to hold him for much longer.

"These human born emotions make you weak Sara-El; you cannot stop me from achieving my destiny!"

Sarah bit back a scream as Kal-El bent her hand backwards, cleanly snapping her wrist in two, and hoisted her into the air, his hand clamped far tighter around her throat than he'd done to hers.

"Clark! Put her down!"

"She is interfering with my destiny." Kal-El responded robotically as Sarah choked. "Such is not her place. Sara-El must be stopped."

"C-Clark." Sarah gasped, fighting for air through her brother's vice-like grip. "S-stop."

Kal-El shook his head. "One day sister, you will learn your place."

With that, Kal-El threw her through the barn wall, shattering one of the support beams with her body as she smashed through, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Sarah landed with an earth-shaking bang, miles away from the barn with so much force that she felt her bones twist and crack. As she succumbed to the the sweet relief of unconsciousness one sarcastic thought reverberated through her foggy mind.

_This really isn't my fucking day._

* * *

><p>Lois Lane was having an awful week.<p>

For three months she'd been consistently warned away from Smallville- she'd had to fight tooth and nail to even attend Chloe's funeral and that had been without a doubt one of the worst days of her life, even if she had made a friend out of it.

But the General had been adamant.

Smallville and all its surrounding areas were off limits. Much to her everlasting disgust she'd also discovered that by surrounding areas, the General had also meant Metropolis… at least for the summer. She had managed to sneak one whirlwind visit to the city in, even if it had only been for a few hours and all she'd managed to do was introduce Sarah to the shadier sides of City Life. Which, as it turned out hadn't been the best of ideas because her contacts in the Club-scene told her that her little farm-girl friend had become quite the regular.

Eventually she'd snapped.

She could no longer sit by and pretend that Chloe wasn't gone, that she hadn't been murdered in cold blood. So she'd left. Left the confines of the Military base, threw off the controlling hand of her father and hightailed it to Smallville. Lois was going to do everything in her power to avenge Chloe Sullivan. But first, she had to find proof.

Somehow she'd ended up at Smallville high, in the room Chloe had claimed for her own. Her cousin had always had big dreams, and she'd built this little newspaper from the ground up… Lois thought that the room was empty without Chloe's spark. So when she'd stumbled across the shiny USB that held Chloe's entire life, she was shocked to find the whole drive wiped except for one measly little video file.

Chloe's message had left her with more questions than answers… especially so, since the message was clearly not for her. So she'd gone to find the only person in Smallville that she knew. Unfortunately she'd almost gotten hit by lightning, driven her car off the road (it was a damn rental too) and met a guy who'd actually been hit by the damn lightning. She'd picked him up (after covering him up a little so she could actually focus) like he was some kind of stray dog and dragged him to the surprisingly large Medical Centre. From there her night had gone down hill, first losing the naked amnesiac who'd been hit by lightning, then finding him again and thankfully handing him off to his relieved mother then sticking her foot in her mouth when she'd finally found Sarah only to realise that said naked amnesiac was the person Chloe had talked to in her message.

Her bad habit of blurting out the first things that popped into her head had acted up and suddenly she'd alienated the only friend she had in this hick town. She knew full well that Sarah was hurting, no one went through that much alcohol for nothing but Lois, in her infinite wisdom, had thrown it all back in her face. After Sarah had given her the brush off (and she definitely didn't blame the girl) she'd picked the least crappiest motel and crashed, figuring she could deal with it in the morning.

Which led her to where she was now, driving her slightly beat-up rental car (there were still corn leaves stuck in places she didn't know corn leaves fitted) in the direction of the Kent farm. How she hadn't guessed that Clark Kent and Sarah Kent were twins she would never know, but would gladly chalk it up to her excessive nicotine consumption addling her brain. The back roads of Smallville all looked the same- surrounded by acres and acres of bloody farmland.

Lois desperately missed the city, but a part of her, the part she stamped down very, very quickly could almost see the appeal of a quiet little town like this.

She immediately ate her words as the ground rippled in front of her- Lois acted on instinct slamming on the breaks. What she hadn't factored in, in her spilt second reaction was the fact that the roads were still slick from the storm.

For the second time in two days Lois ran her car off the road.

"I am so not getting my deposit back." She muttered as she rubbed the back of her neck, positive that this time, she'd actually gotten whiplash. Looking up her her eyes drawn to a small dust cloud and a ditch that looked like something out of an old Loony Tunes cartoon, where the bad guy had been thrown so hard that when he hit the ground he kept going and left a trail of rocks behind him.

"What the hell?"

Lois cursed her damn curiosity as she jumped out of the car, intent on investigating the pile of dust and dirt. Intermingled with the dirt, were tiny flecks of eerily green rocks that seemed to glow from the inside out, something that she was certain could not be healthy. She stepped closer, her eyes widening as she she spotted something that she definitely hadn't been expecting in the debris. A body.

Dropping all pretence, Lois sprinted towards the rubble, falling to her knees as she heaved the unconscious person out of the dirt all the time wondering how the hell she'd found herself in similar situations two days in a row. To her shock, as she turned the girl over, she came face to face with one of the two people she'd been searching for.

Sarah Kent.

Snapping out of her stupor Lois immediately felt for a pulse almost crying with relief as she found one.

"Sarah?" She called softly, trying to wake her friend.

She tapped the brunette's cheek lightly when she barely received a response. "Sarah!" Lois called louder.

"C'mon Kent,wake up!" Sarah's eyes fluttered for a moment, but beyond that there was no response.

Lois scowled at her friend. What kind of trouble had this girl gotten into? "Damn it Sarah!" She growled, shaking the brunette's shoulders. "Wake up!"

The girl on the ground groaned loudly and attempted to swat her away. Attempted being the key word here. Lois glanced down at her friend and frowned. Even drunk, Sarah still had complete control over herself. She could still walk in a straight line, still had brilliant hand-eye coordination and was surprisingly coherent.

This Sarah looked like a disaster.

Lois brushed a few strands of brunette hair out of her eyes tenderly and slowly pulled her friend upright after seeing no obvious injuries on the girl.

"Lois?" Sarah asked groggily.

"Yeah kiddo, c'mon, let's get you upright."

The brunette giggled, "Hello Lois's faces... Where are your bodies? Lois's face needs arms. Robin Hood's brother has nice arms… big, big muscly ones that have a body attached."

"I'm sure he does..." Lois placated as she gripped her obviously delirious friend's arms in an attempt to keep her stable. Seeing Sarah's head about to tilt backwards Lois rearranged her grip so she was cupping the brunette's cheeks. "Look Sarah, you've gotta help me here, you need to keep your eyes open and I need to stop picking people up off the side of the road."

"What chu talkin' 'bout. Silly Lois's face, I'm in the barn."

Lois heaved the obviously intoxicated girl to her feet, again wondering who exactly she'd offended to become reluctant "nurse" to the troubled Kent twins. "I hate to tell you this Sare, but you're pretty far from the barn." She replied hooking Sarah's arm over the back of her neck, hoping that it might make the tall girl easier to carry. Not for the first time, Lois was irrevocably wrong, as Sarah tripped over her feet and brought them down in a messy pile of limbs. "Damn it Kent, how much did you have to drink?"

Sarah giggled, still completely unable to coordinate the movement of her limbs. "You're not squishy Lois. Who knew you had a bod." The brunette giggled again as she poked Lois's flat stomach. "Ohh-Liverr had a bod too…" Lois watched as Sarah's face drooped almost comically. "He was a good-" The brunette looked at her fingers and held up her thumb, index and middle fingers. "Two days."

Lois grinned at the girl, realising that somewhere in Sarah's drunken (and/or delirious) ramblings she'd just admitted to meeting a guy… and not parting from him for two days. Suddenly Lois wasn't sure whether to disapprove or applaud the girl. She was currently leaning more towards disapproval however, simply because she was now stuck with an apparently drunk Sarah, and had no idea what to do other than dump her in the already full hands of Martha Kent. The poor woman had a hell of a lot on her plate, with an amnesiac son, and unconscious husband and now an apparently alcoholic daughter. Shaking her head she sighed. If what she'd heard from Chloe was true, then this family had been through a pretty traumatic few years.

"C'mon you little alcoholic." Lois muttered, pulling her friend up off the ground, this time keeping a much firmer grip on the small-town girl. "Let's get you home."

"Nooooo." Sarah whined into her shoulder. Lois decided then and there that she much preferred her perpetually sarcastic friend over this drunken shell. "Don't wanna." The brunette struggled weakly in her arms and Lois scowled, adjusting her grip and holding her tighter.

"Too bad Kent, I'm done playing Nurse."

"But Clark... not Clark… a little bit Clark? Threw me out a not- window."

Lois shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around what Sarah had just said. She gave up quickly, when she realised that there was no way she could have been thrown out of a "window" on Martha Kent's watch. As she awkwardly manoeuvred the brunette into her really beat up rental car, Lois decided then and there that maybe, just maybe the General had been right.

Smallville was a disaster zone.

* * *

><p>Sarah was honestly surprised to wake up to the remorseful eyes of her twin brother. She couldn't hide her flinch (who could blame her, the monster that was Kal-El had pretty much snapped her like a twig, no matter her Kryptonian status) and Clark couldn't hide the guilt that took over his features. Guilt that immediately told her that it was Clark at her bedside, and not his not-so-better half Kal-El.<p>

"How come I always come out of these situations far more worst for wear than you?"

She grimaced at the sound of her scratchy voice, and wondered exactly how long she's been out. She could clearly remember her encounter with the Last Son of Krypton, but after that... everything was a blur. She could vaguely remember seeing Lois, of all people, but that was as far as her memory went. Sarah had never had troubles with her memory before, and she had to admit, this was not a new experience she was enjoying.

"Sarah I am so sorry."

Sluggishly, the brunette held up a hand. "Shut up Clark. It wasn't you." Sarah readjusted herself against the pillows and was annoyed to feel a sharp pain in the back of her head. Her muted "ouch" wasn't missed by her keen eyed brother neither was the obvious guilt on his face. "Damn Clark. How hard did Kal-El hit me?"

Clark flinched, ever they martyr. "Hard enough for you to be unconscious for almost twelve days."

Sarah's eyes widened. What had happened in the twelve days she'd missed? If Clark was back to normal... was their Dad cured too? Was Lionel behind bars? If she'd been unconscious for twelve days, then she'd missed the trial by at least eight... and she hoped to _God_ that Chloe had been avenged and Lionel _fucking_ Luthor would spend the rest of his life paying for it. But Sarah knew all too well how far the greasing of palms and the well contrived threat could get you and the more cynical part of her doubted that Chloe had gotten her well deserved Justice.

"How much did I miss?"

A glimpse of a smile crossed Clark's face and suddenly, everything seemed a little lighter. "Chloe's alive."

The little air that was in her lungs left in a soft _woosh_, and suddenly everything that had been weighing her down vanished, the shadows pulling at the edges of her vision lightened and she felt... better. Sure, the back of her head felt like it's gone three rounds with a rogue bludger (she was positive that Kal-El actually pulverized the back of her skull after he broke her hand and threw her through the barn) but she didn't care. Her best friend was alive!

Sarah didn't even realise she was crying until Clark wiped away her tears and wrapped her in his strong arms.

"W-where is she?" She hiccuped into Clark's shoulder.

She felt his arms tighten around her and his lips press against the crown of her head. "With Lois."

His disgruntled tone of voice made her giggle. It wasn't quite a joyful sound, her throat was scratchy from disuse and her tears made her giggle sound far too hollow and watery. But it was a step in the right direction. She hadn't laughed in _months._

"I take it you've had your first encounter with Lois Lane?"

"She's a pain in the ass." Clark muttered into her hair. "A pain in the ass that is occupying the room next door."

"What?" Sarah yelped, pulling away from her brother quickly. Said action was immediately followed by regret her bedroom literally spun.

Clark scowled and gripped her shoulders lightly, guiding her back into the bed of pillows. "Could you please not move, and y'know, actually be a decent patient for once in your life? I-" at Sarah's thunderous glare he amended his sentence. "Fine." He groused. "Kal-El, nearly killed you. You're healing extremely slowly. Mum thought that you might have been exposed to the Green Meteorite when you..." He sighed. "When Lois found you, you were delirious- she actually told Mum that you were an alcoholic, can you believe that?"

Sarah grimaced, for once, she regretted how close she was with her Twin, he could read her like a book. Though, she supposed, that advantage did go both ways. Clark, obviously expecting an explanation raised an eyebrow. "You were gone for _months_ Clark." She defended, the guilt and judgement warred for dominance in his eyes and she sighed, backing off a little as she continued her explanation. "You were M.I.A, Mum never left Dad's side, Chloe was dead and they wanted to turn off Dad's life support! I was all alone!" She choked, finally allowing him to see just how much the past three months had affected her. "You were all _gone_. Everyone I loved was taken from me in one fell swoop and the _only_ reason I didn't fall apart was because Mum was relying on me to keep this place going! I needed an outlet."

"So you turned to alcohol?" He growled. Sarah sighed, apparently, judgement had won out. Both she and Clark were quick to anger, quick to judge and quick to assume... especially when it came to things that out their loved ones in danger.

"Yeah, sure." She replied dismissively. Like alcohol was the worst of her vices. She shook her head minutely, careful not to move too quickly, deciding then and there that Clark would never know the full extent of her antics in Metropolis. "At least it wasn't Red Kryptonite. We both know how well that goes down." It was a low-blow, but it would get him off her case quick smart. She didn't want to re-hash the hell she'd gone through without her family. All she wanted to do was forget and put it behind her.

"That was low." He muttered, fussing with the blankets around her waist. "I shouldn't have judged."

"It's alright, I get it. You were worried." At his sheepish smile she ruffled his hair. "You've been away for so long that I've even missed you worrying yourself into an early grave." He laughed, another sound that Sarah had sorely missed. "So... Lois?"

The laughter stopped. "Yes." Clark pouted. "Unfortunately she's staying on a far too permanent basis."

"Permanent basis?" Sarah questioned. Surely Lois had said that she was going to Met U... So what had changed her plans?

Clark smirked an entirely familiar expression that Sarah hadn't seen enough of. "Apparently Lois didn't have enough credits to Graduate... Her application to Met U was pulled the other day so now she's finishing out her senior year at Smallville High and I'm never going to get away from her."

Sarah returned his smirk, her earlier exhaustion forgotten as she listened to her Twin complain about Lois Lane. She could have stayed there for hours, just drinking in his presence because a small part of her still believed that their Kryptonian Father would rip him away again and leave her so utterly alone.

Suddenly Clark stood, a bright smile overtaking his features as he obviously heard something she hadn't (her hearing she'd found wasn't much better than she'd expect a human's to be at this point). He patted her hand softly and kissed her forehead. "Wait here. I have a surprise for you."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's not like I'm going anywhere fast genius."

He was gone in a flash, and Sarah was suddenly jealous of him having his powers whilst hers were on the fritz, a side effect, Clark had explained, of the Kryptonite in her bloodstream and the fact that all of her energy was tied up in knitting the back of her head together. A loud clatter on the landing outside her bedroom had her eyes fixed on the door, and the smooth voices of her Mum and Clark met her ears, followed by a rougher voice that immediately brought tears to her eyes. Her door opened slowly, and there, standing in the door frame, wearing denim and plaid like he'd been born in it was her childhood idol.

Her hero.

Her Dad.

"Dad?" She choked, her eyes wide and tearful.

Jonathan smiled from ear to ear, his reaction to seeing his little girl the same as his reaction to seeing his son. He crossed the room in two large strides his arms encircling her easily. Sarah breathed in his musky scent, her joyful tears soaking his shirt, and his stubble mussing up her hair. "I missed you sweetheart."

"I missed you too Daddy."

As Clark and her Mum joined the hug Sarah smiled brightly, revelling in the all-encompassing feeling of home. This, she decided, was a good day.

Everything was _finally_ perfect.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>_Phew_, the first actual chapter finished *wipes forehead* I really hope that you've enjoyed this chapter, because I predict more in the future. I've loved the response you guys have given me for the Prologue, and I hope it continues... you guys are Rad. Also, if you picked up on my nod to a certain favourite Character of mine from Arrow, you get bonus points!


	3. Football and Frenemies

**Author's Note:** I'm back… Did you miss me? Hopefully this break between chapters hasn't been too long (I've been marathoning Smallville, Doctor Who, Being Human and Sherlock [the BBC Version obviously] interchangeably so I've been a little distracted. Add to that an illness that I can't seem to kick and camping at this beautiful beach a couple of hours from my hometown [I kid you not, there has been every kind of weather imaginable, from torrential downpour to temperatures so hot your skin melts off] writing has been _far_ from my mind) because what you lovely people may not know is that I don't actually have a set plan when it comes to updating and/or writing chapters. My writing style is _notoriously _unorganised (much like my approach to most things outside of work and occasionally school) and I never write in advance. So what I have updated for you all (which is actually written for myself) to enjoy is literally all that I have written.

To help with picturing Sarah, I imagine her sort of a blend between Ashley Greene (when she has long wavy brown hair) Sophia Bush (think early Brooke Davis, circa _**One Tree Hill **Season One_) and Julianne Hough (when she was in _**Footloose**_ only, mostly for the clothes and the hair). Sarah is blue-eyed, tall, lithe (a lot like Kara body-wise. I have yet to see a chubby Kryptonian, must be the genetics) with long wavy brown hair. She's sarcastic and brutally honest (except about her secret, go figure) and isn't afraid to put someone in their place. She's fiercely independent and will hold a grudge forever- no second chances whatsoever. She's also very family orientated, much like Clark and will fight til her last breath to see everyone she loves happy, even to her own detriment. She angers quickly and doesn't forgive easily (hence the grudges) but she's extremely loyal, to a fault, to those that she believes deserves it (it's a very short list of people). She's utterly terrified of being left alone, especially because she's usually the forgotten sibling- Clark's heroism is much easier to handle than her cynicism, and he often (without meaning to) overshadows her. Her methods of dealing with being left behind usually verge on the side of destructive, she'll do pretty much anything to take away the pain, anything that is, except use Red Kryptonite. She hates the affect all Kryptonite (at least the ones she is aware of at this point) has on the both of them, even if she knows that the affect of the Red Kryptonite would be the most effective way to get rid of her pain for good. She's extremely adept at hiding both her emotions (Clark still has a knack of reading her like an open book however) and her _extracurricular_ _activities_, from everyone (she's well aware that she can't keep everything bottled up inside so Chloe deals with the majority of her minor mental breakdowns and guilt about her escapades, though Lois is quickly becoming another confidant, even though neither of them know the full story at this point) especially her parents because the last thing she'd ever want to do is disappoint Jonathan and Martha Kent. Sarah adores Clark, (even though she believes that the majority of the people he has saved and will save don't deserve the privilege), and would do anything for him, the prime example being looking out for him when he's looking out for everyone else- a trait that's been augmented by the weight of his "destiny". She believes that her biological Father is a jerk, and the idea of him forcing a "destiny" on her twin makes her blood boil, so she'll do anything in her power to relieve Clark's burden.

On another topic, so far none of my lovely reviewers (it doesn't count if you don't let me know) have caught on to my completely unsubtle reference to one of my favourite female characters in all of the adapted for TV (but completely different) DC stories. Do you want a hint? Well, I'm going to give it to you any way folks! The reference was given during Sarah's first encounter with the Green Arrow; **If it had been any other time and any other situation she would have admitted that he was **_smoaking_** hot. **Have you guessed yet? No? Well I am disappointed.

The person I alluded to in Sarah's description of the Green Arrow, was none other than ass-kicking, techno-genius and the true Leading Lady in Oliver Queen's (well at least Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen) life, Fleicity Smoak. My all time _favourite _female character in the CW adaptation of **_Arrow._**

But all of that is in the past. So onto the next chapter, which is taking place, yet again in _**Smallville**, Season Four_ (where the rest of this book is also taking place but it doesn't hurt to remind ya'll) during the episodes _Façade _and_ Devoted. _Any recognisable lines come from those episodes.

Yet again I have to inform you that I, _unfortunately, _do not own _**Smallville**_ or any other TV shows, etc, that belong to DC or Warner Bros. or y'know, anyone else who holds the rights. I will claim Sarah though. And maybe Oli- *holds up hands in a placating gesture* okay, okay, just Sarah.

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><strong>Just Like Lightning<strong>

Sarah Kent had one goal, to survive Smallville High unscathed. She'd survived three years so far... so why should her Senior year be any different? Well, with her twin brother MIA, her Dad in a coma and her best friend declared dead she was going to need a miracle to survive unscathed. Or maybe just a blonde-haired mystery man to show her the way. Oliver/OC

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Two: <strong>Football and Frenemies_

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry."<p>

Sarah laughed as Clark killed the ignition in their grudgingly shared Dodge Ram. The vintage truck had been fixed up at some point (Sarah had a sneaking suspicion that this particular version had been the one Tina Greer had stolen as Clark and then later abandoned) and gifted to the two of them as an early birthday present on the condition that it was shared, used only for Farm work and the drive too and from school. While Jonathan had argued that they could simply run to school (Sarah was certain that their Dad enjoyed picking fights with their Mum… something about the 'fire in her eyes'), Martha had been adamant that having the truck would give them some responsibility. Besides, people would notice eventually that the two of them just seemed to turn up out of nowhere.

At Clark's offended look she held up her hands placatingly. "No really Cee, I am! Look, I didn't mean it like that-" Sarah bit her lip in an attempt to smother her giggles and Clark pouted and fled the confinement of the truck's cab, barely restraining himself from slamming the door.

Letting the giggles loose, Sarah grabbed her shoulder bag, flinging it over her shoulder as she jumped out of the cab, and ran after her put-upon brother, flinging an arm around his shoulders (she had to stretch a little, he was almost a head taller than her) and kissing his cheek.

"I'm sorry I laughed at you for wanting to join the football team."

Clark sighed. "I don't know why you find it so funny! You're the one who used to cheer for them!"

"I was a freshman and y'know what? I was an awesome Cheerleader!"

Clark smirked and suddenly, Sarah realised that she'd been played. "Oh c'mon!" She smacked his shoulder, completely gratified when he winced. "That wasn't very nice."

"What wasn't very nice?"

The siblings turned, their sour faces widening into identical blinding grins as they set eyes upon their favourite journalist. After three months of believing that Chloe was gone, Sarah never failed to appreciate the blonde's continuing (or renewed) presence in her life.

"Chloe," Clark started, a mischievous smile settling on his lips. "Do you remember that time Sarah tried out for the cheerleading squad?"

For her part, Chloe at least tried to hold in her giggles. Lois, at her side, simply looked between the Kent Twins with a confused glance.

"You were a cheerleader?" Lois asked, her lips quirking with amusement.

"Yeah." Sarah replied, well aware of the sullen note in her voice.

"She got kicked off after two weeks because she dropped the Captain." Chloe explained through her giggles.

Sarah pouted, an expression that made her and Clark look even more alike. "I did not! She kicked me off because she thought she had competition for the Quarterback."

"Did she?" Lois smirked, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that Sarah immediately recognized. She'd almost forgotten that Lois knew about her antics in Metropolis, antics that Sarah was intending to keep under wraps from both Clark and her parents. None of them really needed to know that Lois wasn't too far off base with her comment about being an alcoholic (Sarah had unfortunately discovered that after her three month binge, alcohol no longer has any effect on her) they'd no doubt freak out, and she'd never be allowed any sort of freedom ever again.

"No." Sarah rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, as though she's tasted something bad. "The Quarterback when I was on the squad was Whitney Fordham and he was, well, to put it politely a douche."

"Sarah." Clark hissed, his eyes almost comically wide.

"Oh shove off Clark, the fact that Whitney joined the army and died as a hero doesn't dismiss the fact that he was cruel and conceited." She rolled her eyes at his disapproving expression. "Oh don't look at me like that Clark, he stripped you naked, tied you to a post and made you into the damn Scarecrow for our year. Good guys don't do that." The 'and he strapped the one thing that could possibly kill us around your neck' was silent- though not entirely unneeded.

Lois's eyes widened, unconsciously mimicking Clark's earlier expression. "Damn, and I thought the guys on the base were bad!"

Sarah laughed cynically, shaking her head. "They've got nothing on small town football players with grudges."

Chloe rolled her eyes as they pushed the double doors to the school open, the hustle and bustle of the new school year much more obvious inside the crowded corridors. "What these two have failed to mention is that Whitney had a bit of a grudge-" Sarah snorted loudly, a completely unladylike sound that somehow seemed out of place coming from the bold brunette. "-against Clark because well, y'know," Chloe lowered her voice as Clark peeled off to get his books out of his locker, in what she didn't yet realise was an entirely futile attempt to protect him from the hurt that talking about Lana caused. "The whole Lana thing."

Lois "hmmed" in a agreement, already having pulled the entire story of the Clark and Lana saga out of him while they were investigating Chloe's apparent death.

Sarah rolled her eyes. There was no love lost between her and Lana Lang. The two girls had never seen eye to eye- something that had been excavated by Lana's lack of presence at Chloe's funeral, something that Sarah considered unforgivable, even if the aforementioned girl had been half way to Paris and Chloe was later found alive. The fact that Lana couldn't even be bothered to jump on the next available flight back, even after Sarah had called her, in tears to inform her of both Chloe's death and Clark's disappearance, infuriated her. Her brother and best friend were the only things tying her and Lana together and Lana's apparent lack of care to both situations had cemented Sarah's opinion of her. Lana Lang was dead to her.

Sick of the topic, Sarah changed it easily- in a completely obvious and wholly un-subtle manner. "So," She started, lounging with her back against her (now shut) locker, her boot-clad foot cocked against the cool metal and her hands in the back pockets of her denim shorts. Much like her twin, Sarah was somewhat oblivious to the affect she had on the opposite sex. Sure, she knew exactly how to use her body to get what she wanted (Her antics in Metropolis were a perfect example) but with the plaid shirt that was tied in a knot at her stomach, the sunglasses holding back her long wavy brown hair and the tight denim shorts that hugged her hips and thighs, the affect she was having on the male population of Smallville High was obvious... to everyone but her. "How much do you think Abby Fine payed for her plastic surgery?"

* * *

><p>Free periods for Sarah meant lying on the couch at the Torch, flipping through back issues of the Daily Planet, the Star City Register and the Gotham Gazette, avoiding any and all responsibilities and her homework. Today was no different.<p>

"Something's wrong with that Abby chick."

Sarah mentally revised her previous statement. Instead of it being Chloe sitting behind the desk at the Torch, it was Lois, who was happily writing a slanderous expose on teen plastic surgery. Chloe and Clark however, were nowhere to be found. Sarah assumed that they were at the hospital, checking in on Lana. Oddly enough, Lois seemed to have a similar opinion of the pale orphan, that is, she did't really like Lana that much either.

"Really Lois? Y'know, I wouldn't have guessed." Sarah replied sarcastically from her regular perch on the cushy couch.

"Are you always this sarcastic or is it just me that brings out the worst in you?"

Sarah laughed loudly and dropped the latest edition of the Gotham Gazette heavily beside the couch as she got to her feet gracefully. "Don't feel to special Lo, I've been told that sarcasm is my base personality." She leant over the other brunette's shoulder and pointed to the screen. "You misspelled 'Serotonin' again. Y'know, you're going to be a pretty terrible reporter if you can't even spell."

Lois glared at her friend's reflection, well aware that Sarah could see her. "Yes, the squiggly red line underneath the word gave me that impression. F.Y.I Sare, I am not becoming a damn reporter!"

Sarah smirked. "Oh, I don't know, _'Lois Lane: Investigative Reporter'_ has a pretty cool ring to it. Besides, if you're good enough, maybe one day you can pay someone to spell-check for you."

"Don't you have somewhere to be?"

The brunette lounged in the seat beside Lois and threw her feet up on the desk, crossing them at the ankles. "Nope. Why? Trying to get rid of me?"

"And failing." Lois muttered, in what she thought was a volume that only she could hear. "Maybe you should go check on Clark and Chloe?"

Sarah dropped her feet from the desk, her boots hitting the linoleum with a thud, her eyes narrowing at Lois as she did. "You're up to something."

"No I'm not!" Lois exclaimed, her voice slightly rising in pitch. _Damn _she thought, _yeah that's not at all obvious- way to go Lois!_

"You're going to check out Abby's mum's studio."

"No." Lois laughed. She stopped when Sarah's glare intensified. She shifted awkwardly in her seat and slumped, realising she'd been caught out. "Yeah." She replied sullenly, before perking up. "Hey, wanna come with?"

Sarah grinned widely, her glare melting away easily. "I thought you'd never ask." Grabbing her messenger back off the end of the couch, she slung it over her shoulder and practically glided to the door. She stopped when she realised that Lois wasn't following. "Are you coming or not Lo?"

Lois scrambled for her handbag, grabbing one of Chloe's tape recorders from the top drawer and rummaging for her keys. She linked her arm with Sarah's as she reached the door, leading her towards her shiny red convertible. "So, do you want plastic surgery or should I?"

Sarah laughed and rolled her eyes at the brunette. "There is no way that Jonathan and Martha Kent's perfect daughter would be anywhere near a place like the Beechwood Medical Center, unless she's with a friend. I vote you."

Lois scoffed as she slid into the driver's seat, watching as Sarah bypassed the door and simply vaulted into the passenger seat. "You are far from perfect my friend."

The brunette shook her head. "Trust me Lo, I'm well aware."

The drive to the Beechwood Medical Centre was surprisingly quick, something that couldn't only be contributed to Lois's ridiculously fast driving (She could have easily found a place on the Street-racing circuit that had risen in infamy since the release [and subsequent sequels] of the Fast and the Furious movies. Sarah wasn't ashamed to admit that she absolutely adored the movies) but also due to the fact that the facility was only ten to fifteen minutes out of town in the direction of Granville.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Sarah was slightly surprised to see Lois stiffen as she turned off the ignition and shoved her car keys in her bag. Before Sarah could say a word, the tension almost visibly drained out of the older brunette only to be replaced with an almost blinding confidence that immediately put Sarah at ease. A large part of her (though she'd never admit it) looked up to Lois because despite the brunette's somewhat flighty presence in her life so far, Lois had been a presence. She exuded confidence, strength and loyalty, three things that Sarah greatly admired and was glad to find in another girl that she could call a friend.

"You ready for this?" She asked, shaking off her thoughts.

Lois grinned, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Of course. It's not every day a girl gets plastic surgery."

The Beechwood Medical Centre was large, and unsurprisingly boasted a number of treatments from Dr. Fine's miracle procedure to the 'humble' botox. Sarah eyed the shiny new facility through thinly veiled disgust, staying quiet as Lois introduced herself to the receptionist and the pair of them were lead through to a small, empty waiting room outside of Dr. Fine's office. They'd barely taken a seat before Lois's name was called and the pair of them were ushered into a white office by a woman with such a striking resemblance to Abby's new look that it could only be her mother.

"Take a seat ladies, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Doctor Fine and you are…?"

Lois grasped the offered hand as Sarah took a seat. "Lois Lane."

Doctor Fine grasped her hand warmly. "It's lovely to meet you Miss Lane, I take it that you are the one interested in the procedure and not your friend Miss…?

"Moral support."

Sarah wasn't at all surprised to receive a glare from Doctor Fine.

"Charming." The blonde Doctor muttered.

Sarah smirked. "So I've been told."

"I do apologise for her, she doesn't approve of Plastic Surgery." Lois shook her head, feigning sadness for a moment before she grasped Sarah's hand. "But she's a good friend which is why she's here with me."

Doctor Fine nodded patronisingly and it was all Sarah could do to stay in her seat and not kick Abby's mother into the next time zone. "So tell me your story Miss Lane."

"My parents just don't understand." Lois shook her head. "They say I'm too young for Plastic Surgery."

Doctor Fine nodded, her ballpoint pen pressed against her notepad. "Well, some parents just don't remember what it was like." She sighed. "When I was your age I wasn't exactly Homecoming Queen."

Lois raised her eyebrows.

"I worked harder than all the pretty girls," Doctor Fine continued, "only to watch everything get handed to them." She stopped after writing a few notes on the pad and gestured to her body. "But seven surgeries in two years changed all that."

Sarah rolled her eyes as Lois grinned widely. She had to hand it to Lois, she certainly played the part of earnest teen well.

"You know, I was actually interested that new procedure you, um, used on Abby. Is it really true you only have to come in once?"

Doctor Fine nodded. "Yes, that's why I developed the process. I didn't want to watch my daughter go through the pain I endured only to have what other girls are lucky enough to be born with." Doctor Fine turned her gaze onto Sarah. "Take your friend here for example. She has the perfect balance of beauty- if only her face wasn't marred by that sullen expression."

Sarah scowled. "Lady you have some serious issu-" She was cut off as Lois drove her elbow into her side. Automatically she angled herself away from Lois so the blow to her ribs wouldn't fracture Lois's elbow.

"I'm sorry." Lois started only to be cut off by Doctor Fine.

"No matter. Let's get you scheduled here."

All three occupants of the room froze when the borrowed tape recorder from Chloe ran out of tape. The whizzing of the tape recoiling caused Lois to flinch. "Yes please!" She exclaimed loudly, attempting to cover up the tell tale noise.

Quick as a flash Sarah grabbed the handbag off the table, standing up and pulling Lois with her. "Actually, we're running late. Our friend is in hospital and we promised we'd check in on her before visiting hours were over."

Doctor Fine snatched at the bag, but Sarah held it out of her reach. "Are you recording this?"

Lois smirked. "I'm going to expose you. Your treatment has put two people in hospital all thanks to your meddling with your daughter's appearance."

Sarah grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the door, silently begging her friend to stop gloating so they could leave.

"Who are you to stop people from being their best!"

"Call me crazy," Lois muttered, "but I've always been a firm believer that beauty, it's on the inside." She turned to Sarah. "C'mon, I have a story to write."

Sarah realised too late that they'd made a fatal error as she felt the unnervingly familiar churning in her stomach and a needle prick her in the back of the neck. She'd turned her back on the enemy. She immediately felt weak, the Green Kryptonite wreaking havoc in her bloodstream as she fell heavily to the floor. Her eyes shut and she felt, rather than saw Lois's body fall beside her.

"People that say that already have it on the outside."

* * *

><p>"Fucking hell." Sarah groaned.<p>

She opened her eyes, only to find that the light was far too bright to do anything but temporarily blind her. She tried to raise her arm to shield her eyes from the glare, only to find that she couldn't move them more than a centimeter. She could still feel the Kryptonite in her system and knew she wouldn't be moving anytime soon. She rattled the bondings at her wrists, feeling another over her chest, her hips and two at her ankles.

"What the fuck."

"I expected the daughter of Jonathan and Martha Kent to have much better language."

Sarah groaned again, recognising the voice as the psycho plastic surgeon she and Lois had been interviewing. "Doctor Fine you are a fucking psycho."

"Shut up Sarah, we've already pissed her off enough don't you think?"

The brunette turned her head, finding Lois strapped to a similar surgical table. As relieved as she was to see her friend, she was also furious. "I'm gonna fucking kill her Lo, and then you're bloody next! Haven't you seen enough action movies to know that gloating gets you killed?"

Lois grinned, but Sarah could see the obvious fear in her eyes. "Guess not." She turned her head as Doctor Fine stepped closer, scaple in hand. "What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you the inside scoop."

Sarah growled as she watched, helpless, as Doctor Fine leant over Lois.

"Do you want to know what it was like for Abigail all those years?" Doctor Fine gripped Lois's cheeks. "Well you're going to find out."

"Stop!" Sarah yelled frantically as a clear body-sized contraption was lowered over Lois's prone form. "No! Stop! Let her go, let her go!"

Abigail's mother grinned. "Oh how touching, you do have feelings." She glanced between the two of them. "Well, if you insist." She pushed another button on the monitor, and suddenly Sarah realised that she hadn't gotten Lois freed, but merely condemned herself to the same fate. Another device lowered from the ceiling and it was all she could do not to scream as she felt the familiar pain from the green Kryptonite infused serum.

"Without the suppressant to balance out your Serotonin levels, I'm afraid you girls will be sharing bunks in the Psyche Ward."

Sarah glanced at Lois, fear written over their faces as they locked eyes. "Just keep your eyes on me Lo. Okay? Can you do that?" She spoke through the pain the Kryptonite caused her, begging Lois with her eyes to stay strong, to not give up.

The other girl shook violently both from the fear and the struggle to free herself. "I didn't mean to get you into this."

Sarah grinned tightly, feeling weaker by the second. "You're my friend Lo, I couldn't let you do this alone."

Lois flashed her a smile, her eyes shutting as the device covered her body, the one above Sarah following suit seconds later. The brunette bit her lip, her teeth instantly drawing blood that, due to her restraints, trickled down the back of her throat. She gagged at the taste and for a moment, wondered if this was where her 'journey' ended. Killed, choking on her own blood on a bed of Green Kryptonite. Another wave of pain struck her, causing her to cry out, her scream reverberating off the plastic shell of the device and causing her ears to ring. She felt weak and helpless a feeling that was becoming far too familiar- especially since this was the second time within two weeks that she'd been felled by the toxic affect of the damned Green Kryptonite.

The sound of metal upon metal broke through the almost soundless device that had her locked in place and the case was opened, to reveal the grinning face of her almost naked partner in crime. Lois grinned down at her, undoing the straps that held her down with ease and practically lifted her off the bench, only for her to stagger, the affect of the Kryptonite multiplied due to the open caskets.

"How did you-" Sarah stopped, spotting Clark doubled over by the doorway. "Clark?"

"He pulled me out." Lois explained, pulling him off the floor and taking half his weight, just as she was doing with Sarah. "Only to get smacked by psycho barbie."

Lois dragged them into the waiting room and slammed the door shut behind her, dumping the twins on separate chairs as she did. Clark recovered almost instantly, and was on his feet just as quick, only to crouch before Sarah as she dry heaved on the chair beside him. Realising that his precious 'baby' sister had been stripped down to a pair of flesh-toned boy-shorts and boob-tube he unbuttoned his flannel and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"You okay?"

Sarah glanced at Lois before replying. "She jabbed us with something." She gave Clark a look that she hoped would interpret as 'the bitch stabbed me with Green Kryptonite' and rubbed the back of her neck where she'd been hit. "I think I'm having a reaction."

"We should get you to the hospital." Lois replied, standing tall, completely unaffected from the Kryptonite infused serum. "We should get us both to the hospital."

"No." She rasped, her throat still raw. "I've spent far too much time in Hospitals lately." The stubborn brunette grasped her brother's arm and unsteadily got to her feet, slipping her arms into Clark's flannel. "Just take me home."

* * *

><p>As it turned out, all Sarah really needed to get the Kryptonite out of her system was a really hot shower and a good nights sleep. Or more accurately, a whole Sunday spent in the Sandman's grasp.<p>

The first two days back at School after what she and Lois were calling 'the incident', were eventful to say the least. Though Sarah had only witnessed Clark's dunking by Lois on Monday at the Pep-Rally, apparently the new assistant Coach (who Sarah wasn't afraid to say was extremely attractive) was attacked by the Quarterback.

Needless to say, by Wednesday, rumours were flying thick and fast. Sarah for one, could not wait until she'd made it out of High School. Like Lois, she had her heart set on Met U, simply because the Business Program they boasted was one of the best in America. No doubt, this was due to the excessive funding from Luthor Corp. Slamming her locker shut, she was dismayed to walk straight into Mandy, the girl who'd replaced her on the Cheerleading Squad after she'd been unceremoniously kicked off.

"Well if it isn't Sarah Kent." Mandy drawled, her posse fanning out behind her to form a semicircle around the brunette. "How's life on the sidelines?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Mandy, sweetheart, lets be honest here, the only reason you're still a Cheerleader is because I haven't taken my spot back." Sarah smirked and stood a bit straighter, looking down at the minuscule blonde. "Now if you'll excuse me."

Mandy scowled, unable to come up with a retort. Scoffing, she pushed past the brunette, the trio of girls behind her following closely.

Shaking her head, Sarah shouldered her messenger bag and raked a hand through her hair. "I can't wait to get out of High School." She muttered, wandering down the hall and through the open door to the Torch.

Dumping her stuff beside the couch she mumbled a greeting to Chloe who simply laughed and handed her a much needed cup of coffee.

"Morning Sunshine." The blonde laughed as Sarah cradled the cup to her chest as she got comfy on the couch. "What's wrong?"

"I ran into Mandy." Sarah groused.

"Ahhh, and how is our favourite cheerleader?"

"Awful as usual." Sarah took a long drink of her coffee and scowled at the top of it. "Ugh, this coffee sucks. I cannot wait until Mum reopens the Talon. Y'know, she tried to make it seem as though she was better than I was, I mean, c'mon."

Chloe shook her head, trying to keep up with the brunette's train of thought. She'd thought that she'd mastered that particular skill long ago, but apparently not. "Who did? You Mum?"

"No! Mandy!" Sarah cried, throwing her hand over her forehead dramatically in a classic 'woe-is-me' pose. "The only reason she's on the squad is because I'm not!"

Chloe laughed. "Why are you so cut about this?"

Sarah pouted. "I liked Cheerleading."

"You were on the squad for two weeks."

"It was fun!"

Chloe shook her head, her amusement obvious as she returned to her story board for the latest edition of the Torch. Both girls looked up as Lois and Clark entered the room.

"Hey Chloe have you seen the way these Football players have been acting?"

"Yeah and I noticed one of them unloaded a shotgun in the boy's locker room. I was thinking about maybe doing an article on it but the only two reporters I have are late again and Sarah refuses to go near anything Journalism related… but hey, at least she's here on time." She paused, lifting her head and feigning surprise. "Oh! Hi. It's you."

"Sorry, I was storming the gates of Metropolis U, trying to get them to change their admission's policy."

"And I had to pick up my new Jacket."

Sarah lifted her head, marvelling at how synchronised Lois and Clark's movements were in relation to each other. For a moment she wondered if there was something between them… she discarded that thought as instantly as it came. Maybe in the future they'd actually find some form of common ground, but she doubted it would be in the form of a relationship!

"It's not exactly your colours…" Chloe drawled, causing Sarah to snort in disbelief.

"It's the school's colours!" Clark replied testily.

Chloe laughed. "Whatever." Returning to her desk she picked up a notepad. "Lois I need you to go to the Smallville Medical Centre, apparently our gun-toting ex-Quarterback woke up this morning and he's feeling the sting of second degree burns. He's been apologising non-stop. So." She held out the notepad with a grin, expecting Lois to take it.

"I'm sure he doesn't love the prospect of playing tight-end for the Kansas State Boys Home." Lois replied with a smirk. Before Chloe could get a word in, the whirlwind brunette's phone rang loudly, and she answered without a second thought. "Hello? Y-yes I will hold for the Dean!"

Sarah rolled her eyes at Lois's completely unsubtle and rather obvious dismissal of Chloe. The dynamic between those two seemed to shift day by day. Some times they'd be as close as her and Clark- other times it was as though they were from different planets. The irony of that statement didn't escape her.

So lost in her thoughts she missed Clark's excuses and subsequent departure until Chloe snapped her fingers impatiently in her line of vision.

"I need your help."

Sarah shook her head quickly, her eyes frantic as she realised that she'd been abandoned to her most dreaded fate.

Becoming a reporter.

She raised her hands in surrender, her eyes flicking to the door as she calculated the risks of using her powers to escape Chloe's vice-like clutches. Pro; at least Chloe would know her secret. Con; Chloe would probably still make her take Clark's spot as reporter... and she'd be mad as hell that they'd kept the 'big secret' from her for years. It'd become so second nature to _keep_ the secret that she didn't know how to _tell_ it, especially when it came to telling her best friend that she'd been lying to her for their entire friendship.

Chloe pouted and pushed the notepad closer to her. Sarah groaned. "Do I have to?"

"Considering your brother and my cousin just quit, you're my next best bet."

Sarah shook her head and crossed her arms, carefully avoiding the notepad. "Chlo, I adore you, I really, really do, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I become a reporter."

* * *

><p>Two hours, three green-stick fractures, a a shot of morphine (not for her, for the Quarterback whose arm she'd broken) and one extremely short interrogation later, Sarah stormed back into the Torch, her eyes blazing so fiercely that she was certain that she was seconds away from setting her 'supposed' best friend on fire. In fact, if it hadn't been for the big hulking Security Guard who'd practically dragged her out of the hospital (after congratulating her for a job well done) she'd have actually set that dick of a Quarterback on fire. Unfortunately for her, he was now out of her reach which meant that Chloe was going to get the brunt of her ire.<p>

It was safe to say that as she practically tore the door to the Torch off its hinges that she was cursing the day that she'd met Chloe Sullivan the girl with a passion for reporting. Sarah hadn't expected the blonde's unrelenting puppy dog eyes combined with a fifteen minute guilt trip, but apparently that was all Chloe needed to make her crack- and give her most hated profession a go. Unsurprisingly, as soon as she'd been groped by the seemly apologetic Quarterback who claimed that he had no control over his actions when he attacked the rather attractive Assistant Coach, Sarah had vowed that she would never ever be going anywhere near a Press Pass ever again.

Unfortunately for the Quarterback, he'd had full control over his actions when he'd tried to cop a feel, and while she'd spent a pretty wild summer in Metropolis, Sarah Kent did not take kindly to being sexually assaulted by some kid in a hospital bed. He'd ended up with three green-stick fractures for his troubles, and she'd… well, she'd made a new friend in the sweet Security Guard who'd ever so kindly escorted her to the exit.

What she wasn't expecting as she stormed back into Chloe's haven, was for said blonde to be flitting around the room with a love-sick smile on her damn lips. To say the least, Sarah's already frayed temper skyrocketed.

"I hope you're fucking happy with yourself! While I was getting sexually assaulted by this week's resident psycho the bloody Quarterback, you were flitting around here doing nothing!" In a fit of childish anger, Sarah threw the notepad across the room. "Fuck you Chloe, I never wanted this bloody job and this is the thanks I get?"

Chloe, for her part seemed entirely unfazed by Sarah's increasingly apocalyptic temper tantrum. In fact, the blonde had the _nerve _to smile at her. "That's great Sarah."

"Excuse me?" Sarah hissed, her voice containing a dangerous edge that Chloe was oblivious to. "I just fucking told you that the Quarterback sexually assaulted me and all you can say is 'That's great Sarah'? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Oh my sweet, sweet future sister-in-law nothing is wrong with me! I've finally realised my purpose in life and honestly, I think it's time that I handed you the Keys to the Kingdom."

Sarah gaped at the blonde, her temper slowly lessening as she realised that something was… _off_. "Future what now?"

Chloe simply grinned and handed her the shining keys to the Torch. Turning her back on Sarah she picked up one of the few photo frames on her desk, caressing it before hugging it to her chest. Sarah instantly recognised it as the frame containing the photo of Chloe and Clark from the Homecoming Dance in freshman year.

"Sister-in-law of course! I've decided to dedicate myself to what's truly important in my life; Clark Kent. I simply don't have time for the Torch anymore. Not now that I'm fully dedicated to Clark."

"What the fuck?!" Sarah shook her head, unable to process a world where Chloe willingly gave up the keys to her most prized possession.

Chloe gasped. "Watch your language Miss Sarah! I'm sure my future mother-in-law would be appalled."

Again, Sarah gaped. "Future who?"

Chloe smiled widely and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry yourself Sarah, Clark and I won't be getting married for a few years yet, we have to finish College first."

"Married?" She exclaimed, entirely unable to reconcile this twilight-zone Chloe who'd handed her keys to the Torch over with a smile (something Chloe had sworn she'd never do due to Sarah's blistering hatred of all things reporter-related, not including her best friend) with the Chloe she'd been best friends with for years.

Chloe nodded, her smile blinding. "Of course you'll be my Maid of Honour, as much as I adore Lois, she's much too flighty for the role and well, I don't trust her around Clark in the slightest." The blonde kissed her cheek and gave the stunned Kent a hug. "Besides, I know that Clark would love for you to be a part of our wedding… I'll see you later sis!"

Sarah watched as her best friend practically floated out of the door in stunned disbelief. Who was that girl and what the fuck had she done with Chloe.

* * *

><p>"Oi! Kent!"<p>

Sarah peered down at the field from her perch at the top of the bleachers, her eyes fixed on the oncoming storm that was well, storming towards her. The brunette sighed and patted the empty spot on the metal bench beside her in the universal sign for 'come sit with me'. She shook her head as Lois batted a rather attractive Junior aside as he tried to speak to her on her way up the bleachers.

"Lane, you do realise that you just snubbed one of the only hot Juniors left in this School?"

Lois rolled her eyes as she collapsed beside her on the bench, neither of them paying much attention to the plays Clark was running on the field. "You and I both know that my taste in Men is older- not pre-pubescent."

Sarah scoffed. "Please, you like men full stop."

Lois grinned. "Yeah, you're right."

Sarah laughed, her eyes flicking over the field but not really seeing anything before she turned back to Lois. "Did you know Chloe gave me the keys to the Torch? Oh! And did you know, her and Clark are getting married!"

Lois gaped, an expression that Sarah had become mighty familiar with in the past few days. "Huh?"

"Mmm, she informed me that I'd be her Maid of Honour because, and I quote 'I adore Lois, but she's much to flighty for the role and well, I don't trust her around Clark in the slightest'." The brunette smirked. "Apparently you're a threat."

"To what?" The older girl scoffed.

"If I knew what was going on in her head I could answer that. What I walked in on last night is not something I can un-see."

Lois groaned. "Oh god what happened?"

"I am ninty-five percent certain that Chloe got quite a bit further than First-Base with Clark last night and I've gotta say I did not see that one coming." Sarah replied, feeling slightly nauseous as she remembered the scene she'd inadvertently walked into when she went looking for her Modern World History book the previous night in the Loft.

"Oh ew."

"Yeah." Sarah muttered, her eyes tracking her twin as he jogged across the field with the rest of the Football team. She rolled her eyes as she watched him break away from the pack, drawn to the solitary figure at the bottom of the bleachers. If there was one thing she could change about her brother it would be the obsession he had with Lana Lang. Although, she had to admit, it seemed said obsession was no longer returned by the dark-haired beauty, if her longing glances towards the new assistant coach were anything to go off. Sarah, like many of the girls at Smallville High (Chloe included) had been rather curious about the arrival of Coach Teague. It hadn't clicked at first, but after Lois informed her of Lana's Parisian summer fling and the arrival of Coach Teague, from Paris, just days after Lana returned... well, the facts were sometimes far too coincidental to not be related.

"Hey... How are you doing?"

Sarah was pulled from her thoughts by Lois's concerned voice and a hand on her arm. She turned to face her friend, her eyes focusing as she snapped back to reality.

"How are _you _doing?" Sarah retorted, instantly on the defensive. She knew, immediately, what Lois was asking but her walls were back up, firmly in place and would not be budging anytime soon. She'd built them over years and in all that time they'd only fallen once, when she believed she'd lost everyone.

Lois grinned tiredly, the smile not reaching her eyes. "I've been better." She nudged Sarah's shoulder lightly. "But I've been worse too."

Sarah tore her eyes from the field and looked, really looked at her friend. Beneath the confident façade Lois was surprisingly jaded but to her credit, she never seemed to dwell on the hardships in her life, instead, forging forward, often blustering her way into situations she wasn't entirely equipped to handle. Lois was a spitfire with a knack for troubling situations… and Sarah was happy to enjoy the ride.

The brunette nodded and squeezed Lois's hand lightly, the other girl smiled at her, both coming to a silent understanding. Yes, the situation they'd been in with Doctor Fine was traumatic, but it wasn't going to rule their lives- it didn't need to, because they were free to live their lives as they pleased, and the 'good' Doctor was getting three meals a day in one of the most heavily guarded psychiatric institutions in the state.

"Besides," Lois started, her eyes widening as she spotted the train wreck sprinting onto the field, wielding the pom-poms Sarah had hung up years ago. "I think we have other things to worry about."

Sarah followed Lois's stunned gaze and groaned, recognising the blonde sprinting onto the field immediately. Part of her wondered where Chloe had found the uniform... until she spotted the embroidered 'SK' on the hem. She smothered at laugh. "So." She grinned at the exasperated Lois. "How much do you reckon a stay at Belreive costs?"

* * *

><p>Normality was not a trait often associated with the citizens of Smallville, but after the Footballers had been cured of their Love Potion haze, the Cheerleaders were suspended or expelled in Mandy's case and Chloe had gladly taken back possession of the keys to the Torch things seemed to almost settle down. Well, as much as they could in the Meteor Freak capitol of the world.<p>

Unfortunately, without any distractions this left Sarah to her own devices… or more specifically a long over-due visit with a certain billionaire with an obsession with their not-so-secret abilities. Sarah couldn't deny that as she made her way up the long driveway to Luthor Manor that they hadn't exactly been discreet with their powers. Clark had stopped so many of the Meteor infected criminals that it wouldn't be much of a leap to assume they knew about his powers- and her's by association.

She'd stayed primarily in the background during Clark's guilt driven takedowns of the small-town criminals, taking apart their schemes whilst Clark took out them. They had a system, sure it was sometimes flawed but the stakes weren't always high so sometimes the flaws didn't matter.

Despite their recklessness there was one family that Sarah would never trust with their secret. The Luthors. They dealt in extortion, blackmail, suspicious deaths and dodgy experiments like normal people dealt in visits to the cinema or a visit to the general store. The Luthors were entirely too dangerous to be trusted with something as volatile as their abilities. Lex's obsession with Clark was downright unhealthy and she'd honestly thought that Clark was done trying to save Lex from himself.

But apparently not.

The guards knew her instantly and didn't try to stop her, like Clark, she'd befriended them long ago and despite Lex's orders to keep her out they never seemed to comply, purposely turning their heads in the opposite direction whenever she came near.

Throwing open the doors to the study in a manner reminiscent of her angry brother she sauntered inside, a smirk on her lips as she spied Lex setting a tumbler of scotch aside as he noticed her.

"Sarah Kent. Why am I not surprised?"

She smiled fakely, her cool mask already in place. "Why am I not surprised that you tried buying back my brother's affection and friendship?" Swiping his the discarded glass of scotch she ran her hand along the table top as she took a sip. "Clark has this nasty habit of always believing the best in people," She set the empty glass down lightly. "Fortunately, I'm not that naive."

"Clark trusts me." Lex responded in a smooth drawl that always managed to set her teeth on edge. "Maybe you should try it sometime."

"And risk you poking around my secrets? I think not."

Lex leaned forward, his eyes gleaming as he stared at her. "Now what possible secrets could you have Sarah? I mean, from what Clark's always told me, you're the good little daughter." He stood, his eyes trailing over her as she lounged on the leather couch. "But we both know that's not true. Don't we?"

Sarah rolled her eyes, entirely unfazed by Lex's failed power-play. "You think you've got me all figured out. The rebellious teenage daughter with a taste for the expensive alcohol and the Metropolis street lights." She downed the rest of the scotch and smirked, gracefully rising to her feet and headed for the still open double doors. "Well," she conceded as she set the glass down on a table by the doors, "You got one thing right."

Flicking her hair out from beneath her jacket she left, feeling his eyes on her the entire time. "Oh and Lex?" Sarah called over her shoulder, all traces of her previous levity dissipating a cold glare making her face seem as though it had been carved from stone and ice. "Stay the fuck away from my brother."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>To the Guest who's review consisted of a complaint that I was making Sarah into a weakling because she isn't as powerful as Clark you need to take a step back and be patient! I purposefully made Sarah _physically_ weaker than Clark and I will explain why. First of all, there is a significant size difference between the siblings- Clark is built like a freight train, and although they're practically the same height (Clark's taller by a few inches, but since he towers over everyone Sarah's pretty tall in comparison to Chloe and Lois) she's much slighter than him (think Kara's body type) which translates into being physically weaker. The key word being _physically_. This does not mean that she is in any way less powerful than Clark! She is faster at picking up their abilities (this is because she accepts her powers, go figure) and has much better control over them. If you had waited until next chapter to ridicule my decision to make her _physically_ weaker than her Twin, you would have realised that I am doing something to make up for this. Due to her slighter frame she's much more streamlined and can run much _faster _than Clark. I may be flighty with my writing, but I do not make changes to Canon without considering the consequences and reactions that result.

I hope that you all have enjoyed this Chapter and I do apologize for my monster length Author's notes. Please review and tell me how annoying they are... and also if you enjoyed this Chapter!


	4. It's Easier to Run

**Author's Note: **Let me just tell you a thing about this chapter. It sucked to write. It just did not want to be written and that is the most annoying thing ever for a writer. I swear, my levels of frustration rose so damn high that I seriously considered throwing my laptop to the furthest reaches of the galaxy.

However, here it is, fully completed and I have to say, I'm kinda proud of how this chapter turned out- even after it caused me so much grief. As is becoming the norm with my chapters, it went in a slightly different direction than I expected. I planned for this chapter to be the same as the last two, that is combining two episodes into one chapter… but due to the introduction of a certain member of the future Justice League, I couldn't bare to cut this one short. I found myself writing more and more and before I knew it- BAM, this chapter was turning out to be almost as long as the combined chapters.

This chapter takes place during the fifth episode of _**Smallville**, Season Four_, aptly titled _Run_. Unfortunately I still do not own anything **_Smallville_** related (other than my DVD boxed set) but if I did… well, Jimmy would have survived to have beautiful little blonde photographer/reporter/watchtower babies with Chloe and let me tell you, those kids could have taken over the world.

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><p><strong>Chapter Three - <strong>_It's Easier to Run_

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><p>Sarah sighed as she stared at her half-finished pile of Advanced Placement Chemistry homework. There was no possible universe where she'd ever use what she'd learnt in A.P Chemistry outside of the high school science lab, but oddly enough, she actually enjoyed the class. The homework however, could only be defined as tedious. Pushing it aside, she flashed downstairs, whizzing around the kitchen as she made her third cup of coffee for the morning. She grinned as she leant against the counter and put the steaming cup to her lips, only for the entirety of the liquid to spill down her front as Clark sped into the kitchen and tapped the bottom of the mug.<p>

"Clark!" She growled, dumping the now empty cup in the sink and scowling at her coffee soaked clothing. It was a good thing they didn't burn- she liked her coffee scalding.

Clark grinned boyishly. "You drink too much coffee anyway."

Sarah sped up to her room, tore off her clothes, jumped in the shower, dried off, put on a new outfit and sped back downstairs, slapping Clark on the back of the head as she did. "And you couldn't have just told me that?"

His grin widened. "But that was much more fun!"

The brunette scowled at her twin. "Shouldn't you be in Metropolis with Dad?"

Clark unconsciously mimicked her expression as he scowled. "Dad almost got hit by a drunk driver-" He held up his hands placatingly as Sarah looked ready to fly off the handle. "Hey, hey, hey he's alright, he's alright! Some kid pulled him out of the way." Clark shook his head ruefully. "He moved even faster than I did."

Sarah smirked, trying to return some levity to the conversation. "Well that's not hard."

Clark rolled his eyes. "The point is Sarah, is that this kid is probably faster than the both of us and he stole Dad's wallet."

"Huh?"

"He saved Dad's life and nicked his wallet at the same time."

She tried not to laugh, she really did. But the idea of someone saving a life and still having time to steal their wallet was kind of surreal. She'd had the option of tagging along with the Kent Men on their boys trip to Metropolis, but in all honesty the notion of attending a Metropolis Sharks game wasn't very appealing. The tickets having come from Lex Luthor in yet another misguided attempt to repair his friendship with Clark, even after she'd warned him to stay away had nothing at all to do with it of course.

"Sounds like this kid has style."

"Style?" Clark scoffed. "He's a petty thief with powers."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Was there something else you wanted Mr. Oh High and Mighty?"

The tall boy grinned sheepishly. "Chloe tracked Dad's credit cards to a hotel in Metropolis and I was thinking that we hadn't raced in a while…"

"You should probably get going then." Sarah grinned cheekily. "I mean, you want at least a chance to win right?"

Without another word Clark took off, the fluttering of the curtains in the invisible wind the only proof he'd been there at all. Sarah casually leant against the open doorframe, her eyes bright with excitement as she silently counted.

One.

Two.

She took a deep breath. _"Three.__"_

Sarah laughed as sped away from the farm, leaving nothing but a trail of dust filled air in her wake. The route to Metropolis was as familiar as the walk between the house and the loft and the faster she ran the lighter she felt. Everything she'd been worrying about, all the pain she'd felt when she was certain she was the only one left fell away as suddenly, she'd outstripped Clark by miles, and had already reached the Metropolis city limits. She slowed, not so much that she could be seen, but just enough for a slightly exasperated Clark to catch up. The brunette fell into step behind him, following him through the crowded city streets, studiously ignoring the not-so-PG memories that threatened to overcome her.

She eyed the Hotel shrewdly, a large part of her glad that the kid who'd stollen the wallet had the unexpected foresight to choose a Hotel that was nowhere near the Clock Tower Apartment. The expensive security seemed like nothing but a joke as they sped through the Lobby and up the rarely used stairwell, Clark having obviously memorised the instructions Chloe had given him on where exactly to find the teenage Houdini.

Sarah glanced around the room they'd super-speeded into with thinly veiled curiosity. Music blared from the speakers connected to the expensive sound system next to the opulent T.V and steam billowed from the partially closed door that she correctly guessed lead to the bathroom. Despite not agreeing with the Kid's method of payment, Sarah had to admit, she was actually kind of impressed by his style. Silently she watched as Clark inspected the boxes of stolen shoes before zeroing in a bright red bag that ridiculously enough, had a lightning bolt for a logo. He upended it, tipping what seemed like a mountain of Jewellery onto the glass table, followed by a few probably Fake I.D's and their Dad's practically empty wallet.

The brunette gave a low whistle as she eyed the mountain of what looked like _really _expensive jewellery. "Damn." She muttered, unsure if the kid could hear her over the sound of the still running water. "This kid's been busy." Crouching beside the glass table, she lightly pulled apart the pile, separating multiple fine-link gold necklaces from jewel encrusted bracelets and diamond rings. She pulled gently at one of the bracelets, wincing as the the pile fell apart with a clatter. One ring immediately caught her attention, mainly because it was so different from the others. Rose gold and stunning, the band curled twice in a spiral that didn't meet, for at one end the ring was carved into a triangular arrow head, and at the other, it was shaped into the fletching. It was completely ironic in the most beautiful way and Sarah couldn't bring herself to put the ring down once she'd picked it up. A surreptitious glance over her shoulder told her that Clark wasn't paying any attention to her fascination with the pile of jewellery, or more particularly, the diamond-studded arrow-shaped ring, instead occupied with the other stollen items. She palmed it, slipping it into her back pocket and stood, passing the I.D's to Clark without another glance at the jewellery. "There's got to be at least three grand worth of jewellery there Cee."

He accepted the I.D's and nodded in response to her statement. "Wally West, Jay Garrick, Barry Allen?" He asked as he thumbed through the I.D's. "Just who is this kid?"

"Are you lost?"

Sarah's head snapped around faster than even she'd thought possible at the sound of an unknown voice. He was much younger than the picture in her mind portrayed and she realised that this Kid couldn't be more than fifteen. Fifteen and already a 'criminal mastermind'. How impressive.

"I guess you must be." The boy continued. "Because this is my room."

She scoffed. "Please, we have more right to it than you. After all our last names are on the card you used to pay for all of this." She took a seat on the plush couch and kicked her feet up on the glass table, carefully avoiding the backpack and it's contents. "Couldn't you have robbed a billionaire? God know's Metropolis has a few. I mean, at least they have money to burn."

The thief grinned boyishly, immediately seeming far younger than the fifteen years she'd guessed for him. "I'm sorry beautiful but I didn't take anything from anyone." He paused, his grin widening as he examined her much the same way she'd done to him moments before. "Though I'll keep your suggestion in mind for when I take you-"

"Finish that sentence and you'll be missing a limb."

Sarah stopped herself before she did a double take at her suddenly protective brother. She mentally shook her head, it wasn't the protection that surprised her- they'd been watching each other's backs for longer than they could walk- it was that he'd actually threatened violence, even if it was an empty threat due to his strict moral compass. It was that strict sense of Morality that Clark adhered to so strongly that terrified her. Deep down she knew that Clark would never be able to make the choices that she was sure they would someday be forced to make simply because of the powers they'd been born with. The though of her and Clark ending up on opposite sides terrified her, but she knew that it was entirely possible. Clark's narrow-minded views of what constituted as good and evil was so entirely black and white that he refused to see the defining shades of grey that truly ruled the super-powered world they were bound to one day live in.

The boy held up his hands in mock surrender. "Woah, woah, whah calm down big guy, we're all friends here."

"We're not your friends." Clark snapped, glaring at the smaller teen.

Sarah stood, brushing off the dark thoughts of the future and placed a hand on her brother's arm. "Clark, calm down." She glanced at the boy, her eyes finding his across the room easily. Her Mum had once told her that a person's eyes were the window to their soul and for the first time in her life, she actually believed that statement. While the boy's mannerisms screamed confidence in spades, his eyes held the same gleam she'd furiously tried to avoid seeing whenever she'd looked in the mirror during the longest three months of her life. Loneliness. Sarah let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "He's just a kid."

Clark shook off her hand angrily. "Yeah," He spat, "just a kid that stole everything in this room and has no doubt racked up a debt that we can't afford to pay!"

The 'kid' flashed to the other side of the room, sans bathrobe but suddenly clad in red and yellow. Sarah almost grinned, apparently her uptight twin wasn't the only one with a passion for the primary colours. The boy grinned coldly and threw his hands out, gesturing at the stolen items.

"Yeah? Prove it."

"I saw you save our Dad from that truck this morning." Clark replied, seemingly easing up on the anger he harboured at the boy's lack of ethics.

"Man," the teen laughed, "nobody sees me when I'm doing my thing."

Sarah grinned, her eyes alight at the prospect of a challenge. There was no doubt in her mind that this Kid was fast and as much as it galled her to admit, he was probably faster than the both of them. His eyes didn't hold the same inklings of madness that overcame the rest of the Meteor Infected and she sincerely hoped that he'd gained his powers from something begin and not from the cursed rocks that had heralded their arrival on earth.

"Maybe you're not the only one who can move that fast." Clark grinned, and Sarah suddenly realised that the boy had no idea that they had powers. "Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, whatever your name really is."

"It's Bart." The teen snapped. "Not that it matters because i'll be a thousand miles away before you can even blink."

"I don't know," Clark challenged, "I can blink pretty fast."

Sarah shook her head, practically feeling the testosterone levels in the room rise. She leant against the wall and resisted the urge to scoff at the two boys instead settling for a roll of her baby blues and crossing her arms across her chest.

"Who are you man?"

"I'm gonna get my Dad's wallet and then you and I are gonna sit down for a long talk."

He turned to grab the wallet, but Bart had already moved and was standing on the other side of the room, backpack over his shoulders, the jewellery and ID's conspicuously absent from the glass table. Bart held up the wallet and shook his head. "Not big on the chitchat dude…" Sarah smirked as he winked in her direction, completely amused by his tenacity. "Smell you later."

He was gone in a flash and Sarah barely withheld an overjoyed "whoop" as she threw herself into a speed that no regular human could ever hope to reach. She followed him easily, dodging the occasional car, building and pedestrian with a practiced ease as she fell into step behind him, neither trying to stop him or overtake him. In all honesty, thoughts of getting her Dad's wallet back had fallen to the wayside as she realised that she'd finally found someone who could actually push her speed to the limits. Sarah could sense that Bart was holding back, and as Clark easily overtook her, making an ill-advised leap at the boy, she realised she was too. Bart easily avoided Clark's swipe, leaping into the open air across the water, time seemed to slow as his left foot hit the water, followed by his right and he was soon speeding across the water like it was as solid as the earth. Sarah grinned and threw all caution to the wind, ignoring her brother's shocked and somewhat horrified gasp as she leapt after the younger boy.

Sarah laughter echoed on the open air as the water remained solid as she sped across it, her elation obvious as she pushed herself faster and faster across the water. Thoughts of Clark, of Jor-El, of Bart and the stollen wallet dissipated in the air as she finally allowed herself to revel in her powers and truly feel the freedom she'd coveted for so long. Just as she thought she'd caught up to Bart, he fell into step beside her, grinning widely as she pushed herself almost too the limit and he kept up with ease. The terrain shifted beneath her, changing from water to asphalt, and from asphalt to grass as Bart gave her the universal gesture for 'after you'. Sarah simply smirked and led him through the not-quite bustling main street of Smallville and down the familiar roads that led to the Kent farm.

She glided to a swift stop at the top of the veranda steps, shifting from speeds faster than any man-made vehicle could ever hope to reach to a human-paced walk smoothly. Sarah gave Bart a hard look before she opened the door, silently conveying to him that if he so much as removed a scrap of fabric she'd make it impossible for him to even walk again, let alone run at the speed of light.

"Make yourself at home."

Bart grinned impishly and flashed around the kitchen, Sarah's eyes following him with tiny veiled amusement as he eagerly handed her a glass of Martha's freshly squeezed Orange Juice. She accepted it instantly, only slightly surprised that he'd taken her previous sentiment to heart and treated the old yellow farmhouse as the home she wasn't sure he'd ever had.

"That was so cool!" He exclaimed, his arms waving so wildly Sarah was certain she'd need to be cleaning up spilled juice. "Like I thought I was the only one who could move like that but damn beautiful your brother was fast but you were on a whole other level!"

"You're not so bad yourself kid." Sarah shook her head with a grin as she headed for the stairs. Stopping at the bottom she glanced up at the landing, listening for the tell-tale signs of Jonathan being upstairs. "Oi Dad!" She yelled, her voice echoing through the house. "I found the kid who stole your wallet!" Turning back to Bart she held out her hand.

Bart rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and handed over the worn leather wallet, cards and all.

"What did your Mother tell you about yelling in the house?" Jonathan hollered from the top of the stairs, his amusement apparent as he grinned at Sarah.

Sarah grinned cheekily. "I dunno, what did Grandma Kent say?"

"Touche." Jonathan laughed, ruffling her already wind mussed hair. "Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth would it kiddo."

"I haven't tried."

Jonathan "hmmed", his eyes fixed on the boy nonchalantly leaning against the kitchen island. "And who are you young man?"

Bart automatically stuck out his hand. "Bart Allen, at your service." He dropped his hand when Jonathan made no move to shake it, shoving it in his back pocket in a rare display of nervousness. "I uh, saved your life earlier today."

Unimpressed, Jonathan turned his glare on his daughter. "Sarah Kent," He started and immediately Sarah realised that she was in trouble. "Would you care to explain?"

Sarah handed Jonathan his wallet, her eyes downcast as she tried to figure out a way to explain her current situation without angering her Dad. "You'll still need to report the cards as stolen… that way you can get the money back that Bart spent." Jonathan raised an eyebrow and Sarah immediately caved, unable to stall any longer. "Okay!" She jabbed a finger in Bart's direction. "He's faster than I am."

Jonathan smiled tightly at Bart and grasped Sarah's arm, leading her away from their house guest and into the relative privacy of the other room. "Sarah, sweetheart," Jonathan started slowly, his eyes darting between his daughter and the still occupied kitchen. "I remember everything you've ever told me, I know exactly how much you want to meet someone else with the same abilities that you and Clark share, but sweetheart," he sighed sadly and Sarah realised that this was one of those moments where her Dad was going to say something that would break her heart. "You need to remember that you and Clark, you're not like anyone else. The people that have been infected by the Meteor rocks, no matter how begin their gifts start off as, always end up becoming far too dangerous to both themselves and everyone around them."

"Dad…"

"Both you and Clark are strong but Sarah... neither of you are invincible."

Sarah wanted to say something, anything, to convince her Dad that they'd all be okay, but she couldn't bring herself to form the words. She knew the risk. She knew the threat posed by the people infected by the Green Kryptonite, and her father was right, all of them had become dangerous in one form or another. Ever since she'd found out that her and Clark were different she'd wanted to meet someone like her who could teach her the things she needed to know but the mysteries of alien ancestry would always remain just that; mysteries. And honestly, that sucked more than anything.

A part of her knew that cavorting with Bart could end badly- he had unexplainable, inhuman speed, and the only way she knew of getting powers like that came from overexposure to what she fondly nicknamed the 'glowing green rocks of doom'. But something was different about the kid sitting in their kitchen. For one, she didn't get that nagging feeling of dread that always accompanied a meeting with a Meteor-Freak and she didn't feel the need to claw through six layers of skin to find an itch she couldn't scratch. Maybe she was being wilfully ignorant, but she didn't want to believe that this pocket-rocket of a kid that she'd already become remarkably fond of could fall off the wagon and take a one-way trip to Belreive.

"Bart's a good kid." At Jonathan's incredulous stare she amended her statement slightly. "He's misguided yes, but so was I when you were gone!" She winced as she unintentionally revealed that she hadn't been completely okay when Clark had been M.I.A and he'd spent his free time napping in a hospital bed. "I refuse to believe he's a meteor-freak Dad. Don't ask me to explain it but I just…" She shook her head with a sigh. "That look in his eyes, underneath the false confidence and bravado, he just needs someone to care."

"You don't need to be that person kiddo." Jonathan grumbled, not a fan of Bart and definitely not a fan of the kid who stole his wallet hanging around his daughter.

Sarah smiled softly. "Yeah, yeah I do."

The brunette kissed her over-protective Dad on the cheek and headed back into the kitchen, snatching her glass of juice off the counter-top she grinned at Bart and slid into the seat beside him, the boy immediately beginning to talk her ear off about going for a run. The two teens turned as the front door swung open and Clark stomped inside seemingly oblivious to their presence.

"Dad, we found the kid who stole your wallet but I lost him down at the Docks. He took off across the water, and here's the best part, Sarah followed him! But now I can't find either of…" He trailed of as Jonathan inclined his head towards the warm kitchen. "Them."

"Hey Clark." Bart grinned widely as he took a sip of his juice. "What took you so long?"

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><p>"34 B?"<p>

Sarah looked up incredulously, finding a grinning Bart standing over her, dangling an emerald green bikini in front of her eyes. She accepted it with slightly shocked grin and shook her head.

"Close." She replied with a smirk, easily shaking off her shock.

"Huh." Bart muttered, flopping down beside her in the sand. "Up or down?"

Sarah laughed, finding Bart's shamelessness when it came to all things the opposite sex, refreshing. He was so different to her brother in the best and worst of ways- she'd instantly felt a connection with the younger boy and she already considered him a friend. Bart's cockiness and over-confidence could border on annoying but when it all came down to it, Sarah honestly believed that he was harmless. "Uh-uh." She shook her head. "You're cute kid, but not that cute."

Bart pouted and she grinned. "Are you at least gonna wear it?"

Sarah blurred away, finding the nearest alcove to change into the probably stolen bikini, leaving her t-shirt off as she flashed back to her spot beside bart on the warm Miami beach. Bart, with the help of a patented Sarah Kent guilt trip had convinced Clark to take a leave of his responsibilities and just have a little fun. Considering that this had happened after the younger boy had found out about Clark's almost obsessive love of Lana and their sometimes life threatening 'allergy' to the Green Meteor Rocks, Sarah wasn't that surprised that Cark had conceded.

Bart smirked as she leisurely sat beside him. "Up." He said as he blatantly stared at her chest, "Definitely up."

Sarah smacked the back of his head causing him to yelp and glanced around them, searching for the still absent Clark. "Where did you leave my brother and does he need rescuing?"

"I left him with some girl." Bart replied leaning back and tilting his face towards the sun. "He's probably still fumbling his way through 'Hi my name is Clark'"

The brunette laughed, the truth of that statement not being lost on her. Clark was entirely oblivious and descended into a mess of bumbling nerves whenever a pretty girl showed even an inkling of interest in him. She didn't reply to Bart, completely content to sit in silence and examine the other people on the beach. The majority were far more tanned than she was, which was saying something due to all the hours she spent in the sun working on the farm, though she had to admit, her body was far more toned than most of the females sun baking. Her eyes wandered to a group of teens, probably only a year or to older than her seventeen, playing a rousing game of Volleyball. Her eyes lingered on an attractively well-muscled guy who hadn't quite grasped the concept of how to avoid clashing colours. Green and Orange? Not a great combo.

Bart nudged her shoulder lightly, a boyish grin on his face as he followed her line of vision. "I've figured out why we'll never work as a couple."

Sarah gaped. "Huh?" She spluttered.

"I mean you're gorgeous and all, don't get me wrong." Bart winked at her and suddenly Sarah realised that he was joking. "But you have a thing for blondes and I'm sorry beautiful, but I can't rock that look."

She laughed loudly, drawing the attention of Clark as he made his way over to the pair with a baffled expression on his face. "Oh yeah." Sarah replied through her giggles. "I'm definitely keeping you around."

Clark stopped in front of the giggling pair, a deep red blush still staining his cheeks as he stared at them with his signature bewildered expression. The leggy blonde who'd been fawning over his baby blues and the muscles shown by his tight red t-shirt had obviously done a number on him as he still hadn't regained his rarely shaken composure. Sarah grinned up at her twin, instantly deciding that dragging him to Miami had been Bart's best idea yet.

"Enjoying Miami Cee?" She asked cheekily, her tongue between her teeth.

Clark's blush deepened, causing Bart to laugh brightly. "Uhhuh." He squeaked. He swallowed and rolled his shoulder's back in an attempt to regain some of his composure. "We should probably be getting back… we've been gone for hours."

Sarah pouted, but allowed Clark to pull her to her feet. She pulled her t-shirt over her head, slipped on her shoes and got ready to run, aware of Bart and Clark doing the same. Just before they were about to take off, Clark seemed to do a double take as he stared at her.

"Hey- where'd you get that bikini?"

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><p>There had never been much that Sarah Kent considered unforgivable.<p>

Attacks against her were brushed off with a sarcastic remark and a wave of her hand but attacks against her friends... attacks against her _family? _That was unforgivable.

Bart, the boy she had defended so fiercely, that she felt so protective of from the moment she'd met him had done the one thing she couldn't forgive. He'd attacked Clark.

Sarah had followed him the instant he'd left the warehouse where he'd tried to fence Lex's manuscript. She hadn't wanted to get involved- Bart did what he did to survive in a world that existed in shades of grey- but the second Clark had stepped in, berating Bart for surviving the only way he knew how, Sarah knew that the younger boy would lash out. Clark refused to see the world the way it was, and expected everybody to abide by the vision he saw through his rose-coloured glasses. Unfortunately this was problematic at best and caused far more conflict than he realised. His narrow-minded ideals had caused the fiercely independent Bart to rebel and honestly, Sarah wasn't completely surprised that the red and yellow clad teen had ran straight for the priceless manuscript that Clark was certain was Kryptonian in origin.

What she hadn't expected (though she should have) was Bart using the knowledge he'd gained when he'd accidentally stumbled upon their greatest weakness against Clark.

Furious, Sarah followed him easily, matching him step for step as he fled the city limits of Metropolis, not seeming to notice her on his tail. Increasing her speed, Sarah barely noticed as the scenery changed, the sprawling fields of green and gold turning to pavement and manicured grass as they sped through the clean streets of Star City. In a moment of dexterity that would make even the most stoic of assassins proud, Sarah pulled level with Bart, feinted right and swiped her leg beneath Bart's sending him crashing forward in a tangle of his own limbs.

He groaned as he untangled himself and stumbled to his feet. "What the hell beautiful?"

"What the hell?" Sarah spat at him, her fury igniting as he got to his feet as though he hadn't betrayed her twin moments before. In a rare fit of temper, Sarah pulled her arm back before lurching forward, her fist spraying Bart's blood across the both of them as he fell backwards onto the asphalt. "You could have killed him!" She shouted at him, watching callously as he attempted to staunch the flow of blood. It had taken everything inside of her not to use the full extent of her strength when she'd hit him- beneath the anger she knew that she'd regret it if she hurt him irreparably. But that didn't mean she forgave him. "You betrayed Clark!" She shook her head, her voice dropping from a shout to a strained whisper. "You betrayed _me.__"_

Bart finally staunched the flow of crimson from his nose and set it back into place, thanking every god and goddess he knew of for the rapid replication of cells in his body. His nose would be completely healed in less than a day. He couldn't bare to look up, to see the hatred in the eyes that up until then had only held friendship and a protective gleam that he hadn't ever expected to see directed in his direction. And he'd screwed it all up. "Sarah, I'm sorry!" He flashed to his feet, and tried to grasp her hand. It was the first time he'd called her by her given name and not the compliments he favoured. It hurt him more than he thought it would. Sarah pulled her hand away faster than he could each for it and he realised exactly how badly he'd fucked up with the manuscript and Clark. "I messed up! I messed up!" Tears sprang to his eyes for the first time since he could remember. "Please Sarah, I'm sorry!"

Sarah stared at him cooly, hating the situation they were in. "I defended you Bart. Against everyone! I told Clark you were harmless, that all you wanted was a _friend." _Her face was set in stone as she glared at the boy who'd betrayed her trust. "What you did to Clark was not the action of a friend but of an enemy."

Bart lowered his head, his heart sinking. "I'm not your enemy!" He cried,

"No." Sarah shook her head. "But you're not my friend either."

"Sarah…" He whispered sadly.

"Just… go."

"Sarah-"

She held up a hand, desperate for him to stop talking. Gone was the confident façade and the cocky remarks- it'd been replaced with the lonely teen beneath, pleading for the _only_ person who'd given him a chance to forgive him… but she couldn't do it. And that hurt more than the deepest cut a green Kryptonite infused dagger could inflict. "Just go, Bart."

His last whispered "I'm sorry" reached her ears long after he'd flashed away, leaving nothing but a devastated seventeen-year-old behind. She sank to her knees, her anger evaporating on the wind, leaving her feeling completely drained and disheartened. It hurt to realise how misguided she'd been in giving Bart both her trust and loyalty. Sarah had always prided herself on being a good judge of character, but she'd trusted Bart easily and he'd turned on Clark quicker than any of them had been able to blink. Never in a million years did she believe the lonely kid behind the arrogant mask would do something so underhanded as to use the Kryptonite against Clark.

But he had.

She hung her head in her hands, hating that everything had played out as it did. She still honestly believed that deep down, Bart was a good kid… but she doubted she'd ever find it within herself to risk giving him a second chance only for it to end the same way as the first. There was a reason she swore off second chances.

"Y'know, for someone not from Star City you sure do spend a lot of time sitting in the middle of empty streets."

Sarah shot to her feet, thoughts of Bart pushed aside as she recognised the distorted voice. She turned, finding the unmistakeable figure of the modern day Robin Hood. She rubbed her thumb over the rose-gold ring on her middle finger, the diamonds on the arrow-head and fletching shining in the darkness. She'd slipped the ring on after the run to Miami, and seriously contemplated taking it off, if only to be rid of more unwelcome memories, this time featuring Bart. Sarah clenched her fist, unable to take the ring off, or be rid of the memories it held. She may be on the verge of hating Bart, but she admired the archer, if only because he'd saved her life. "Do you spend all your time stalking young girls or is that just a hobby?"

The archer smirked, his eyes eyeing the ring on her middle finger. "Just a hobby." He stepped forward, catching her hand and unclenching her fist, eyeing the stolen ring with fascination. "An arrow?"

Sarah inclined her head slightly as she eyed the green leather he was clad from head to toe in. Last time she'd barely taken a glance at him, so focused on not throwing up her lungs, a kidney and her liver thanks to the delightful effect of the knife she'd been cut with. This time, there wasn't a threat to her person, there didn't seem to be one on it's way and she was desperately searching for a distraction from the disappointment she felt about being so wrong about Bart. She pulled her hand away and examined the green leather he seemed so fond of. It hugged him in _all _the right areas and Sarah had to admit, the view was awesome.

"What are you? Some kind of leather fetishist?"

The top half of the Archer's face was shrouded in the shadow cast by his hood, but Sarah could clearly see his lips curve into a scowl. "Now that's just down right rude."

She smirked, glad he was distracted from the ring on her finger. "I'll take that as a no 'ey Robin Hood?"

It was the Archer's turn to smirk, and Sarah felt herself go a little weak at the knees. The combination of the defined muscles that definitely weren't just for show, the smirk and the promise of the mystery under the hood had Sarah wanting to get to know him on a much more primal level… if only to satisfy her curiosity. He stepped forward, invading her personal space, but the brunette couldn't find it within herself to step back. There was something about the man that had saved her life once already that practically screamed familiarity- her back hit the wall, and she was suddenly boxed in by his arms.

_...She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his lips down to meet hers as he boxed her in against the cage-elevator wall. He pulled away, kissing down her neck as one of his hands interlinked with hers against the wall and the other pulled her closer__…_

Sarah shut her eyes against the onslaught of memories from her time in the Clocktower Apartment… or more specifically, the elevator before they'd even reached the apartment. She shifted uncomfortably, glad for the darkness that hid the heated blush creeping across her cheeks as she tried to regain her composure. The Archer smirked as he lent down to whisper in her ear, completely aware of the heat she was radiating.

"Robin Hood couldn't hold a candle to me."

Sarah stamped down on the blush and smirked, matching his previous expression. "Prove it."

The Masked Archer spun away smoothly, one hand reaching for the quiver at his back and the other grasping the collapsed bow at his side, flicking it in a sharp motion that extended it to a rather impressive length. The bow was notched and in a blink, the arrow flew straight and true, hitting a tree over a hundred meters away. Two more arrows followed, each splitting the shaft of the other.

He turned back to her and Sarah could practically feel the smugness radiating from him and inclined her head slightly, the only concession she was willing to give to his talents. He clicked a button on the side of the bow, collapsing it and returning it to the holster with a grin that she immediately found she couldn't get enough of. He stepped closer and Sarah found that she didn't actually mind him being so close, that was, until his grin dropped and suddenly he looked far too serious.

"Why did you send him away?"

Sarah pushed him away, her fists against the leather that covered his torso and escaped from the wall he'd caged her against. "That's none of your business." She replied coldly.

"Then let me make it my business."

Sarah laughed coldly, "Yeah, because the mask and the hood really inspires confidence."

"Do you let anyone in?" He snapped.

Immediately, she bristled in anger. "Who are _you _to ask me that?"

The Archer gripped her arm and spun her into his chest, trapping her other hand between their chests as he wrapped his arm around her waist. "I'm the man who saved your life."

Again, Sarah pushed him away, this time hard enough for him to stumble despite his still firm grip on her arm. She pried his hand off and stepped back, far out of his reach. "Just because you saved my life once doesn't make you a part of it." Sarah watched coldly as he regained his footing on the asphalt and shook her head, turning on her heels and disappearing into the darkness of the night. It was always easier to run.

* * *

><p>Oliver rubbed the back of his neck as he stared in the direction he knew the brunette had left in. She was a walking contradiction- sometimes she seemed so vulnerable that she'd crumble beneath his touch and other times it was as though she'd been carved from ice. She was so completely intriguing and he couldn't deny how drawn he was to her, both as the masked vigilante and as Oliver Queen.<p>

The first time he'd seen her was across the room at a packed nightclub and he hadn't given her a second thought, dismissing her as unattainable, even for him. But he'd seen her more and more often during few months he'd spent in Metropolis setting up the newest branch of Queen Industries and familiarising himself with the intricacies of the Metropolis nightclub scene. But she'd surprised him in returning his appraising stares and before he knew what he was doing he'd brought her a drink and another and another and they'd stumbled back to his apartment and didn't leave for what felt like years.

She had worshipped every part of him, kissing his scars and pulling down his walls like they hadn't even existed. He'd surprised himself when he'd asked her to stay, but he was glad he did when she'd opened up, revealing the harsh realities of her life. Oliver had responded in kind, telling her about his parents, about his friends, about Mercy, about everyone he'd lost while she remained in his arms, silently providing him with more comfort than anyone else in his life had done.

For weeks he'd thought that she was just a figment of his imagination, a product of his damaged psych. But then he'd seen her again, in the most unlikely of places with a knife to her neck and tears in her eyes. Oliver had almost forgotten that he was in _costume, _because she was _there_, the girl who'd plagued his dreams, right in front of him and he'd just saved her life. He'd turned away for just a second and again she was gone.

Until tonight. Again, she'd turned up so far away from the place he thought was her home, and Oliver had honestly thought that he could get her to open up as the Vigilante, but he'd ended up pushing her further away. She was so _frustrating- _but he was so drawn to her, the mysterious brunette who was always gone in the blink of an eye and had the strength of someone twice her size.

Brushing off the green leather that made him feel more alive than any of the most expensive suits he owned, Oliver grinned.

He'd always loved a challenge.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Another chapter finished. Are you proud? Ya'll should be. I would like to say a huge thanks to all _**nineteen**_ of my wonderful reviewers (yeah I realise a lot of you doubled up so thanks you're awesome) and I hope everyone continues to review, favourite and follow because I do appreciate it so much. It's honestly the best encouragement anyone could give to hear that you're enjoying the story and it always makes me want to write more and more! The updates will become a little more sporadic because I start University on Monday holy lord.

Thanks again guys! You're brill.


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